“Now you’re looking the skate part, it’s time to get on board. Not literally. Do not, we repeat, do not, attempt to mount a skateboard unless you are a professional. We tried it once, and it did not end well. If you feel like really blending in then, sure, bring along a deck, but it’s an accessory NOT a mode of transport. Besides that, you’re good to go.”
You might have seen the link we shared over on our facebook page yesterday afternoon from Marie Claire regarding the opening party of the new HTC One park, “So, this is where all the hot single men have been hiding?”
Whilst we get that this is obviously supposed to be lighthearted and satirical, we still can’t help but feel a couple of Nellie Eden’s comments were slightly irresponsible, and if even one girl heeds the advice to “never mount a skateboard” then that is one too many skaters lost.
Other females from the skate community (not just skateboarding) have been up in arms about this however, leading to a comments such as…
“It reads straight out of an early 80’s Jackie mag. Your readers deserve better!”
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“I honestly cannot believe the audacity of your recent post on skateboarding. Telling females to stand around as an accessory is disgusting. Maybe you could encourage woman to be more than just an object and not drag us back to the 19th century.”
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“We are meant to be empowering young women and encouraging them to find outlets which aren’t solely based on appearance. This article is sexist as it is naive, narrow minded and judgemental.”
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“This defines all of the attention seeking girls that hang around skateparks. You’re a retard, if you go to skate park for dating you have some social skill problems.”
We couldn’t print some of the other ‘less kind’ comments that we’ve seen as some of our readers are very young, but we can safely say that this article has not gone down well and we have a feeling it will be simply brushed off as an April Fool – lets hope it is!
The whole article in itself is pretty laughable – from the £95 t-shirt to the awful sleeveless leather jacket. If Marie Claire wanted some insight on ‘skate fashion’ they should have looked up Model & Fashion student Stef Nurding, who also happens to be rad on a skateboard! For one of the best selling fashion magazines, we expected better.
Read the original article here
Let us know what you guys think!?
girlskateuk.com 
You guys are such haters. It’s a fashion shoot. Who are you to decide what is and isn’t right for skateboarding? Funny how much love you are shown as a minority compared to how much you are hatin on them. You should respect other people’s decisions, creativity and opinions rather than using it as an excuse to show how ‘rightoues’ you are….
Haters?
Who is she to discourage girl skaters?
We don’t care about her fashion section but what she said discourages girl skaters and is extremely sexist.
It’s digusting and thank god she saw sense and altered her article.
well for starters were female skaters hence us being offended about the degrading article you wrote about skating. of course were hating! so are all the male skaters because what you’re saying is disgraceful. there is already enough of a sterotype towards female skaters and to have fellow females encourage that girls should not skate and instead should stand around looking pretty is degrading. Nearly all my friends are male skaters and just like females it doesn’t matter what the person dresse like or pretends to like, you like who ever you like. the pure fact that you would encourage female to change who they are and what they like to it in with current society shows how much of a mockery your morals as a business are
Really sisters? Skating not about fashion ? Open your eyes. your replies have proved yourselves to be immature with closed minds. The article expresses an opinion of an individual and what she saw as a way to promote her fashion. You are all acting in a stereotypical way because you are silly little sheep trying to be somebody.
Calling people “haters” just because they disagree with something is merely a variant of Godwin’s Law. The Marie Claire article was pretty vacuous even by fashion journalism standards and didn’t seem to offer any advice beyond buy a hat, T-shirt, jacket, jeans and some shoes, then go stand around a skatepark.
My daughter is 7 years old and a keen skateboarder. The girls that run this web site have been amazing role models for her and do indeed promote a “positive attitude” to skateboarding. I want my daughter to grow up with sporting (and non-sporting) ambitions that go beyond standing on the side lines looking pretty.
The author of the article could have done just a little research into the female skateboard scene and combined that with her fashion promotion in a positive way (to both skateboarding and fashion). Instead she put forward a shopping list, while advocating, “women, don’t skate”. And the fact that Marie Claire pulled the article, seems to me, an admission of guilt.
Hi Honest Jill. If marie claire had shown an ounce of creativity with this article I think you may have a point. And to your point – Skateboarders will always decide on whats right for skateboarding whether you like it or not. You obviously are not one so do not understand this. its not righteous ( note spelling ) its not a sport and its not a fashion commodity. Respect must be earned and sloppy sexist appalling rubbish garners little respect. At the best of times skateboarders do not suffer fools gladly. Hate is a bit strong, more of a strong reaction to outsiders reaching in to a tight knit community for a bit of weak bandwagon Kudos. In future I suggest you comment on what you have a true understanding of…………….. Best wishes from a 39 year old male skateboarder. 27 years a skateboarder.
Individual?
She’s telling us to BLEND in!
YOU need to open your eyes!
“skating not about fashion?” no it’s not, it’s about skating. it’s about skaters, of both genders, from every background, having a love for the same sport. there is not one specific “fashion” in skating. each skater has their own fashion and other skaters couldn’t care less what they wear because we all love the same thing and therefor accept each other rather than judging them. calling people immature and continuing to degrade and put down people shows more about you than the “closed mind” skaters you continue to disrespect. you encourage females to stop being true to themselves and to do their best to fit into society so they can be socially acceptable. you are backing the old fashioned way of thinking that women are just a piece of meat that are only intended on earth to look pretty for boys rather than living their own life. well done, you’ve traveled back in time to the 1900’s! why should people feel bad about living the life they want, dressing the way they want and being who they are when it’s their life. who are you to judge people and say that what they wear and what their interests are is wrong?
Please look at skateboarding for what it is. You will probably follow a certain brand because it represents what you feel you are. That is fashion. You are probably wearing and skating items that you think are cool or represent you in a certain way. That is a fashion choice. I have been a dedicated skater for over a decade. The same problems were pushed against Nike when they decided to jump on skating band wagon but they showed to be a postive force because it normalised skateboarding.
As for all this stuff about it being bad to look good for boys? Are u serious, I bet you wear foundation and make sure you look ok before you leave to go skate. Utter hypocrisy from you girls. I’m trying to educate you but I guess it’s to late. Go support your scene with positive attitude rather than joining forces in a hate campaign. X
‘Honest Jill’ although I do agree with your comment about the fact that a certain ‘fashion’ does exist within skating, I’ve personally never worn foundation in my life… and wear my boyfriends knackered checkered shirts n baggy tee’s when I go skating/snowboarding. If I didn’t have a boyfriend I’d just get them from the charity shop because quite frankly your clothes are going to end up ripped to shreds anyway.
I think the issue is more about the fact that there is a movement emerging towards eradicating the stereotypes that girls can’t skate, and this just sets it right back.
From my experience there is nothing but love for those who are interested or want to try any board sport, that I haven’t found in any other sport.
Let’s be positive x
Also, doesn’t everyone check the mirror before they leave the house? Whether you’re skating, walking to the shop, or heading out to work? And it’s not all about the boys, I know a lot of girls that care more about what girls think than the boys!
Lets be honest, ‘honest jil’ you have no idea what you’re talking about. Yeah you know your fashion, great, well done. But you clearly don’t understand skateboarding and the effect that article had on not only girl skaters but girls in sports in general. How about you go to a skate park and watch girls skate, you’ll be lucky if you see the foundation you are on about. In fact, you’ll be lucky if you see any girls skating at all due to articles like that. Anyway you’ve done your best at changing the subject, no one was ‘hating’ on the fashion side of this, it was the derogatory comments made about girls that would go to the skatepark and try to fit in just to pick up guys, its pathetic. I hate those girls. And if you disagree so strongly, why was the article changed?
Girls, you do not own skateboarding. Let people represent it however they want. It is simply riding on wood doing good tricks. You are trying to turn it into a suffragette movement?
You have also missed the fact that a lot of girls want to meet boys rather than trying to act like one because they think it creates equal rights. I believe smart girls know exactly what I mean. A balance between being a skater and a girly girl is so hard!
Still you’re being hypocritical. It’s ok for you to not be interested in getting boys but why prevent other girls from meeting skaters because that don’t wear a skateboard. It just has this stench of rallying a pointless cause.
‘I don’t understand skateboarding’. So now you are establishing a certain way of being a skateboarder because it disagrees with your view. I want skating to be everywhere all the time. Men and women, without having to have special rights for woman. I want to earn them myself.
The article wasn’t derogatory. It’s just obvious that it’s harder for women. If you look at the standard then clearly we have a lot to learn how to get as good as boys! I have been thinking that skateboarding was dominated by man so all the tricks and equipment someone better designed for men!
We need a board that can fit my high heels on….
I too* was not impressed and wrote a similar article here:
http://squaregame.wordpress.com/2014/04/01/sexism-and-skateboarding-marie-claire/
Skate is not fashion. SKATE IS A WAY OF LIFE!!! SOOOO F*** POSERS FUCK FASHION AND F*** RAMP TRAMPS!!
We have a lot to learn how to get better than boys?!?!?!? Are you kidding me???? Leticia bufoni, Eliana sosco, Lacey, Mimi, Nora… Better / equal to most pro males WITHOUT a doubt!!!!!
And hard to juggle being a girly girl and skate? No it’s not! Don’t take your skateboard shopping, and don’t being your crap to the skatepark. Done.
Seriously?
How can anyone defend that article?
There is no fashion in skateboarding!
When I go skate I wear a baggy tee from which ever skate company wanted to give it to me for free or a company I truly believe in. I wear cheapy tesco jeans as I always rip them and I wear what ever skate shoes that skate well.
It’s function over fashion!
I don’t choose my setup on what looks pretty or is the trendy brand, I choose a setup that works for me!
Your calling these girls immature for standing up for skateboarding and the right to defend female skateboarders! If you (honest jill) actually skate (not push around to look cool) then you would be just as offended by the article as we are!
Oh and one last thing, as a guy, I really dislike women coming to skateparks to pick up guys. Back in the 90’s and early 00’s girls who didn’t skate, but hung around skateparks to try and hookup with guys, were called skatepark sluts!
I’m skating to blow off steam and hang out with my friends! Not to be a part of some fashion parade or look cool or pick up women.
I skate for me.
Any real skateboarder would agree with that statement.
Wow! Poor boy you really don’t think there is fashion in skateboarding! And once again your comment about ‘just pushing’ rather than skating suggests you are confining what and what isn’t skating. I have a skateboard and I skate. Fuck all you posers on here crying for attention because the hot girls get those guys not us bruised leg ramp tramps.
However, you are so into skating you guys can’t see what objective points I’m trying to open you up to see. Just ride your skateboard and don’t Diss an article because you don’t agree with it.
Please just think how you would react if your favorite pro had written the Marie care article. You would be agreeing with it no doubt.
‘Honestjill’ –There is fashion in skateboarding, in general most people wear clothes that either make them feel comfortable or confident. But I don’t think any of the girls are pissed off about the fashion side of things, everyone’s pissed off with the comment about using a skateboard as an accessory and telling girls not to bother trying to skate. It puts a bad image on any other skateboarder girl out there. It almost insinuates that all girls who carries a skateboard can’t skate and we’re all just posers trying to get boys. It’s not exactly a good message to be giving to any girls thinking about giving skateboarding a go or have just started and most of the skateboarder girls I know would love for more girls to join the sport. Some of us girls do try to look nice when we go for a skate but like someone said no more than we try to look nice to go anywhere else, the media in general and society makes us feel we need to look a certain way not the boys at the skate park. I don’t think you can have much passion for skateboarding.. I haven’t skated that much recently but I still feel it’s more than just ” simply riding on wood doing good tricks”
Let us girls be pissed off about article for our own reason’s! What’s it to you?
‘Honest Jill’ is your name really Nellie Eden and did you write the ‘So This Is Where All The Hot Men Are Hiding…’ article?
No!
Oh my. After slating Marie care article you all go and skate at selfridges. …. double standards.
i agree that Marie Clare have written a rather offensive article all round. But……if skate (and surf) companies (i’m sure you know the ones i mean…) didn’t use women as sex objects to promote their products, then perhaps females in general would be treated with some respect. Female longboarding material also highlights the ‘fashion’ of the sport. The hot pants, the knee high socks, the vans, the long hair and tight tee’s. This has never been more upsetting to me than when i saw a young girl skater , not very competent, in similar apparel, skating on a busy main road….stupid, i guess, but the video’s on youtube show this as a ‘how to’…..there is so much pressure created by these high street magazines for girls to be ‘objectified’…it is just not acceptable. The skate companies also need campaigning, if the image of the board sport female is to change.