Gender Manoeuvring in Swedish Skateboarding: Negotiations of Femininities and the Hierarchical Gender Structure

Abstract

The Nordic countries score high in gender equality ratings and we have a long tradition of working with feminist agendas promising liberal futures to both young women and men. Still, contemporary young women struggle to make room for female participation in male-dominated spaces. Based on ethnographic research, this article explores gender manoeuvring, that is, manipulations of the relationship between masculinity and femininity in the patterned beliefs and activities of Swedish skateboarding. The three most apparent femininities in the empirical material, 'the tomboy', 'the bitch', and 'the lesbian', are discussed and how they sometimes give rise to gender manoeuvring and sometimes not. I argue that the formation of a national network harnessing feminist strategies has been successful in making space for female skateboarding in local skateparks and the mainstream media. The negotiations these actions result in have the potential to transform the hierarchical gender order between and among masculinities and femininities. However, simultaneous tendencies to preserve the unequal gender structure through valuing both hegemonic masculinity and femininity become visible.

The social bordering of lifestyle sports: inclusive principles, exclusive reality

“…The rhetoric of equality is used as a tool to construct a perceived difference from mainstream sport and to tempt young practitioners (Lähteenmaa 2002, 29;Harinen, Rautopuro, and Itkonen 2006, 65-67). Nevertheless, this study, along with previous research, indicates polarisation in the possibilities to participate in lifestyle sports (Bäckström 2005(Bäckström , 2013.…”

“…Connell 2002;Bäckström 2005Bäckström , 2013Coad 2008;Breeze 2010;Harinen 2010). Thus far, there are more studies on 'traditional sports' within this analytical frame, where heteronormativity and hegemonic masculinity are considered as structures that exclude gender and sexual minorities in their real action culture (Connell 2002;Coad 2008;Kokkonen 2012;Alanko 2013).…”

“…I remember feeling like I have something to prove, like people assume I can't do anything, but I don't care to emphasise it anymore since you get used to it somehow … I don't think that many even care, they see a girl coming but forget about it. (24-year-old female skateboarder, interview) Principally, sexual minorities are explicitly welcomed in roller derby and skateboarding, but in both cases non-heterosexuality is mostly linked only with lesbian women (see also Bäckström 2013). A widely spread opinion seems to be that among female skateboarders and roller derby players homo-or bisexuality is more common than in the surrounding society or within other sport communities.…”

“…Thus far, lifestyle sport scenes have been strongly masculine and male-dominated (e.g. Bäckström 2005Bäckström , 2013Rautopuro, Harinen, and Itkonen 2007, 134;Ojala 2015). This dominance, however, is now most obviously challenged in the context of roller derby where there is space also for various gender minorities.…”

Presenting phenomenology: faithfully recreating the lived experiences of Surfer Girls

“…Recent studies have examined women's participation in a variety of traditionally male-dominated activities including snowboarding (Thorpe 2005(Thorpe , 2012Sisjord 2009), the martial arts (Velija, Mierzwinski, and Fortune 2013), climbing (Dilley and Scraton 2010), windsurfing (Wheaton 2002), skateboarding (Abulhawa 2008;Bäckström 2013), motorcycling (Joans 2006;Roster 2007) and surfing Wilson 2012a, 2012b;Olive, McCuaig, and Phillips 2013). Leisure pursuits very much related to surfing, such as skateboarding and snowboarding claim growing space within the body of knowledge.…”