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is there a specific rw connell article this is on or an overall idea of their work? interested in reading more.
Connell, never investigates skateboarding specifically (as far as I know), but ends up being a huge force in creating a foundation for studying masculinity. I'd just spark notes my way through one of Connell's key works.
Becky Beal did a great article in 95 on skateboarding masculinity; Neftalie Williams just finished up his dissertation that looks at race in skateboarding (I imagine we'll see a lot of his work coming out in the next two to three years); Emily Yochim-Chivers did a great book on skateboarding, which discusses masculinity; and the Pushing Boarders stuff has its presentations on the topic as well.
Finally, could you imagine Chris Milic walking on to a football field? Or, him walking into the WWF ring with his chocolate milk and his stuffed animals? We are far far far from perfect, but it irks me to no end to get lumped in with typical frat boy jock dickheads.
tight, i've been following pushing boarders & neftalie for a while and it helped push me back to continue my studies in sociology last year. just picked up dani abulhawa's new book, too, "skateboarding and feminity". i pulled up a couple of connell's pieces to check out and also found yochim's book available to read online. thank you!
i'd love it if we heard more positive news about skaters, like skate pal or after-school skate programs, but thats not the case. toxic masculinity exists in lots of scenes and for people who surround themselves around skateboarding they will or have experienced it in one way or another. so, it's not strictly a skater thing because once we strip everyone of their skateboard, football, computer games, etc. they'll still be assholes. but it is a skater thing because we're all a part of this skate world and it is a problem that is happening. in some cases, skaters became the jocks they weren't trying to be. i don't like being lumped up with jocks and abusers but i also know there's a history of this and try to do my part to set better examples and change perspective. obviously it cant happen overnight but it's up to all of us to call out the bullshit when we see it and work on rewiring those within the "skate community" first to make it more welcoming to all newcomers and setting better examples for the future and working on forming and maintaining healthy relationships. preserving or protecting skate culture works both ways in terms of making it inclusive and still weeding out the kooks.
i don't know, video was weird fosho. maybe she got kinda lost (white supremacy?) and now i probably am too. someone else could have expressed her sentiments better but she probably had to get it off her chest so i back her on that, but i see the point the girl in the video was going for and she even said it herself she's trying to open up the conversation, so gotta start somewhere. i thought she was talking about toxic masculinity, my bad.