Comment by stolio | Hacker News Reader

Comment by stolio | Hacker News Reader

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Just because "the target demographic of commercial skateboard culture shrank drastically" doesn't mean it was a conscious or subconscious decision of anybody involved in the industry. I'm sure there were plenty of skateboarding companies that tried to stick with the old style and simply went out of business. Things change, you can't always blame somebody when they do.

On Enjoi: you have to take things in context and even a casual glance at their ads makes it clear they trend towards the offensive and absurd for the sake of being offensive and absurd. They also joke about pooping their pants but I don't think they're trying to advocate for it.

On Hubba: a wheel company I've never heard of that doesn't have a wheel on Amazon's 100 best selling skateboarding wheels list and only has one set of bearings on Amazon's 100 best selling bearings. I'm not sure how they're the representatives of skateboarding culture.

I just don't like the article, I think the people and companies were chosen specifically to support the narrative of sexism. Elissa Steamer and Leticia Bufoni matter more to skateboarding than Hubba Wheels ever will, but their names aren't even mentioned, only the fact that they're told they "skate like guys" but you don't have their names so it's hard to go find the context of what that means in skateboarding. If you watch five minutes of girls and five minutes of guys skateboarding at the XGames you'll realize the girls skate differently, they have a different posture and a totally different style but not really in a good way. They often look uncertain. But as is so common these days the compliments of "skating like a guy" are divorced from context in order to make them look sexist.

"I'm sure there were plenty of skateboarding companies that tried to stick with the old style and simply went out of business."

All of skateboarding came to the brink of collapse in the late 80s and early 90s. No company was making any kind of money off the sport, only a few made just enough to keep some small sliver still alive. Major brands went under, skate parks went under, shops went under, contests ended, ramps went into disrepair, "vert" was declared dead and anyone who still enjoyed skating was harassed and ostracised as outcasts.

It wasn't until about a decade later that modern skateboarding, as we see it today, saw some hope of resurgence and was able to rekindle itself from the ashes of its former glory. All thanks in part to the those that trudged on during the rough times just for the love of the sport.

>All thanks in part to the those that trudged on during the rough times just for the love of the sport.

I.e. men.

Like IT: There was no money in it, just a load of guys doing it for the love of it. 20 years later there's huge money in it, those guys who were there at the start are at the top of the pile and the women who never previously showed an interest in it are on the sidelines screaming "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE WOMYN??!?!".

This whole equality war in IT is becoming incredibly tiring. Endless attacks from a transparent supremacy movement whose members were calling people in IT "nerds" 10 years ago.

I guess those people exist, but they're an awfully small part of it. I mean women have a much higher attrition rate than men once they get into the industry, so it's not just a case of starting at the top.

> Just because "the target demographic of commercial skateboard culture shrank drastically" doesn't mean it was a conscious or subconscious decision of anybody involved in the industry.

I don't see how this is relevant? A problem is a problem, no matter if it's caused by a someones decision, or by systematic bias.

It's relevant because problems like this default to being the result of "the patriarchy" or sexism.

OTOH you could argue that women were kept out of skateboarding because the entire thing moved below the glass floor (the opposite of the glass ceiling that keeps women out of dangerous jobs) as it became too low-class and dangerous for even poor women. In line with what mtbcoder noted, throughout the eighties and nineties being a skateboarder meant you were an outcast and a criminal. As a society we don't like attaching those terms to women. It was only after several years of the X-Games being on TV and new skateparks being built that the sport gained the sense of legitimacy it enjoys today.

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