- One thing I'd like people to understand about me is that, just because I'm a girl and I'm a female, I can do things just as well as men can, and there shouldn't be discrimination against that. For example I do skateboarding as a hobby, and the big thing in skateboarding is that guys seem to think that just because girls are skating they are a lot worst than them, just because they're female, so they don't have the same type of commitments and things, like girls don't get the same recognition as guys do. So if you look on Instagram, you get big skaters like Tony Hawk, Jamie Griffin, Nyjah and things like that, they've got a lot of following, and then you look at girls who are doing the exact same tricks as them, the exact same things, they've got absolutely no recognition at all, and I don't feel like that's fair, because it's exactly the same. The only difference is that they're guys. Why girls don't get the same recognition? I don't understand it, you know?
- It seems like it's the same in football where we all can name a few male players and don't know a single female player...
- And there's female leagues and things like that, why is that? For example I used to do ice hockey as well, and my coach didn't see the girls being as good as the boys were, because the boys had their own team, the girls had their own team. So what happened was the coach basically picked out quote on quote the best players in the girls team to put into the boys team, so it'd only become a boys team. So only the boys are put forward and I don't understand why they couldn't have just went straight for the girls, because the girls were just as good if not better than the majority of the boys on that team. So why is there this big difference just because of the gender, you know?
- The only thing I see that could make sense is that men, by nature, have a bigger lung capacity for instance, which might help in terms of endurance and that kind of things, but in the case of skateboarding it's not really an important variable, it makes it really irrelevant, you can do tricks just the same way so...
- Yeah exactly! I had this exact same conversation with a couple of my friends a couple days ago, and I was talking to the guys about it and they completely understood as well, like they don't understand either why the girls weren't getting as much recognition, because they agreed themselves that the girls they have seen on Instagram and things, they're just the same if not better than these guys who get recognized a lot more, and why this is happening? You know, it's gonna do the same loop of « No recognition, why? ». It doesn't really make any sense...
- Clearly yes, thanks for addressing that! Do you think there's something that could be done from men or women to change that?
- I feel like men should be more accepting in the skating community towards girls trying to learn, because I've seen a lot some of my friends who only started skating, they're literally terrified to go to a skatepark which is filled with men because they feel like they're gonna get judged, or they're just gonna be put down because they can't do what guys think is basic tricks, but you always start at one point...
- Yes, Tony Hawk fell a few times I guess...
- Yes exactly, like Tony Hawk did a ollie once... and it's really bad, because the girls community is so small in skating and I feel like it needs to expand a lot more. But we can't, because the girls are feeling heavily judged by guys.
- Do you feel like it's even slowing down your progress, to feel judged by men?
- Yes, definitely, because I feel a lot more confident when there's girls skating in a group, because we cheer each other on, we help each other out, but for example I went to Transgression the other day, which is an indoor skatepark, and I was just there with a bunch of guys, and it wasn't... (sighing) like, they weren't cheering each other on, they weren't... it's not the exact same, I feel like if they were together and cheer everyone on, it'll be so much better, it'll be a happier experience, you know?
- Yes, like « We are skateboarders anyway, so let's see each others as such beyond gender and share the passion all together », I guess...
