Skirtboarders.com: Skateboarding Women and Self-Formation as Ethical Subjects

Abstract

The Skirtboarders, a Montreal-based crew of female skateboarders, purposely challenge discourses of femininity through an Internet skateboarding blog. Interviews with crew members reveal the similarity between their sporting and Internet practices and processes that Foucault (1986, p. 28) referred to as “self-formation as an ‘ethical subject’”. We draw on the four aspects that Foucault outlined by which an individual constitutes herself as an ethical subject—ethical substance, mode of subjection, ethical work and telos—to analyze the Skirtboarders’ reflexivity and critical engagement through their skateboarding blogging experiences. The results illustrate how sportswomen-driven forms of social media can become a means of individualized and collective ethical transformation.

Problematizing Foucauldian Ethics

“…As I have demonstrated in this review, these studies, without being uniform, draw on key tenets of Foucauldian ethics with a distinct but not totalizing tendency to follow Markula's Foucauldian feminism. This is indicative of the quality of Markula's theoretical explication of Foucault's work and that most of this body of scholarship has shared Markula's interest in examining possibilities for feminist activism and change within sport and exercise from a poststructuralist perspective (e.g., Hanold, 2010;Hardin, 2011;Jones & Aitchison, 2007;MacKay & Dallaire, 2013;Markula, 2004;Markula & Pringle, 2006;Spowart et al, 2010;Thorpe, 2008;Young & Dallaire, 2008).…”

“…While writing this review, I experimented with structuring my analysis in relation to Markula and Pringle’s (2006) monograph on Foucault. It is notable, however, that many scholars (e.g., MacKay & Dallaire, 2013; Spowart et al, 2010; Thorpe, 2008) continue to reference Markula’s (2003) initial exposition of Foucauldian feminism. Subsequently, in this section, my review emphasizes Markula’s definitive early work while actively incorporating her subsequent sole-authored and coauthored empirical and theoretical work.…”

“…Broadly speaking, studies drawing on technologies of the self can be split into four groups, namely, those who conduct an analysis focusing on tensions between technologies of domination and technologies of the self (e.g., Bridel & Rail, 2007; Hanold, 2010; Jones & Aitchison, 2007; Young & Dallaire, 2008), those who structure their analysis in relation to Markula’s (2003) Foucauldian feminism (e.g., Hardin, 2011; Markula, 2004; Spowart et al, 2010; Thorpe, 2008), those who structure their analysis in relation to Foucault’s mode of subjectivation (e.g., MacKay & Dallaire, 2013; Pringle & Hickey, 2010), and those who emphasize select aspects of Foucault’s ethics (e.g., Crocket, 2014, 2015a, 2015b; Markula & Pringle, 2006). Although it is useful to use these groupings to review the literature, I stress that there is considerable overlap between these groups and they should not be viewed as fully distinct.…”

“…Two studies have structured their analyses in relation to Foucault’s mode of subjectivation with sections discussing ethical substance, mode of subjection, ethical work, and telos (MacKay & Dallaire, 2013; Pringle & Hickey, 2010). MacKay and Dallaire’s (2013) study of the Skirtboarders, a female skating collective who run a prominent blog about their group, revealed that these sportswomen took as their ethical substance “their gender subjectivity and particularly their relationship to other women” (p. 180).…”

Action Sports, the Olympic Games, and the Opportunities and Challenges for Gender Equity: The Cases of Surfing and Skateboarding

“…That's one of the reasons we did form [the Women's Skate Alliance] over a decade ago, to make sure we were represented." The WSA has been an important initiative to ensure women are involved in how female skateboarders are represented (MacKay & Dallaire, 2013) and some members of WSA, including Knoop, have been part of group meetings and decision making, leading skateboarding toward (and beyond) Tokyo 2020.…”