News :: GLBT
Sexy Skateboarding Ads Attack Discriminationby Dylan VoxGaywired.comWednesday Jan 10, 2007 If you haven’t been paying attention to the latest trend in advertising, then you may have missed MTV’s new anti-discrimination ads.
As seen on Youtube.com, this ad shows two cute young guys working together to build a half pipe. They work out the plans; they pull out their tools and create the perfect skate ramp. After a job well done, the two guys give each other high five’s, grab hands, pull each other in too a brotherly embrace, and then make out.
That’s right, the two skateboarders make out, and even though it is pretty brief, the ad is hot and definitely gets the point across. As the ad says, "You Never Know" referring to sexuality.
MTV no doubt chose skateboarders for their campaign because they are not a group readily identifiable with a homosexual audience, but the history of the sport and the antiestablishment nature of skateboarding ironically parallels the early generations of gay men and women.
Invented in the 1950s by southern California surfers who sought a way to surf without waves, skateboarding has itself experienced several machinations through its history. Outlawed in the 1960s because it was perceived as dangerous, skateboarding enjoyed a revival in the 1970s and another in the 1980s, helped along by Marty McFly, the skateboarding hero of the Back to the Future movies.
In the 1990s, skateboarding once again flourished, not only as a popular "extreme" sport, but also as a five hundred million dollar a year business. Perhaps because it was spawned by the bohemian surfer culture, skateboarding has always had a rebel image, and it is this that may be responsible for the continuing renewal of its popularity among younger generations. Unlike surfers, skateboarders need nothing but the streets and concrete structures of the city to hone their skills, and they have nothing but concrete to break their falls. Thus skateboarding has attracted a tough, independent, and rebellious type of urban youth, who have created their own subculture.
Skateboarders, who call themselves "thrashers" or "shredders," are largely self-taught. They have their own lingo, their own clothing styles, their own competitions, and their own publications. This is very similar to the gay culture, which has also found a niche with marketing and publications geared with a gay edge.
Skateboarding has also spawned its own music genre, with a similarly wild image. Groups with names like Septic Death and Gang Green record their "speed metal" music on small labels devoted to "skate rock." One skate rock disc jockey, Skatemaster Tate, describes the music vividly: "It’s punk rock and skating rolled up in a ball of confusion and screaming down the alley in a gutter."
Since skateboarding is often done by groups of teenagers on city streets, parking garages, empty swimming pools and the like, skaters are often subject to hostility from local citizenry and law enforcement officials. Cities have often banned skateboarding or developing special parks devoted to the sport. While bans seem somewhat discriminatory they are widely used to control the sport. Skateboard parks offer a compromise that is often at least partially successful. Parks like the Savanna Slamma and Milwaukee’s Turf Skateboard Park attract hundreds of skaters to show off their tricks on ramps and half-pipes constructed especially for safe skating. However, Some skaters feel that skating is a street sport and that relegating it to special parks robs it of its rebel cachet.
This antipathy between skateboarders and the law enforcement spawned the popular bumper sticker "Skateboarding is not a crime." There is however a hierarchy of players within the sport. While younger generations are being more open about their sexuality and there is less of a stigma placed on being gay, there is still some animosity of gay people infiltrating the subversive sport. One young gay skateboarding blogger, Patrick O’Neil posted a message about his experience in the skating world. "Once all of the other skaters at my local skate park found out I was gay, they have been threatening me and treating me very badly. They all call my stuff like ’fag boy,’ or ’Gay Pat’ and it’s so inappropriate. Usually I show them all up at skating but it doesn’t stop them. I always feel left out when the guys bring their girlfriends to watch them skate cuz I know that if I brought my boyfriend to watch me skate they would probably beat us up. I just wanted to let everyone know what’s going on with gay people in the skateboard world, and I hope a lot of you will not take this as laughing matter. I hope that someday everyone, gay or straight, will be able to skate in harmony."
Copyright Gaywired.com. Used by permission.
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