Gender roles (the band), gender roles (the inventions) and skateboarding
“Gender roles are just ridiculous, aren’t they? Like, it’s crazy that they would even exist,” Tom said. “It’s just f*****g stupid, isn’t it?”
Tom is the guitarist and vocalist for the indie-punk band Gender Roles, which takes its name from a long-running joke about the strange societal expectations applied to gender.
“I think we’re one of those bands where it’s fun music, it’s quite squeaky and noisy, and it’s a bit frantic sometimes — but it’s quite catchy,” he said.
Tom also skates, being lucky enough to enjoy Brighton’s smoothly-paved roads and healthy skate scene.
“It’s been my only way to get through lockdown, I think,” he said. “I’ve never been sporty, ever. I really don’t like sport. But skateboarding feels like the creative version of sport.”
He’s right — creativity is at the heart of skating, much like music. Nowhere is this more clear than at the intersection of the two.
Though Gender Roles isn’t influenced by skate culture, their music carries the same feeling of order in chaos.
Take ‘Hey With Two Whys’, a track from their 2019 album ‘PRANG’. It opens with a smooth guitar and bass riff, carried by an aggressive drum beat that could easily belong to a different song. But when Tom adds the vocals, everything seems to fall into place.
If you’ve ever seen (or joined) a group of skateboarders at a street spot or a skate park, you’ll know it’s much the same: a handful of different forces working independently, but somehow coming together in a collective rhythm.
Another track from the album, ‘School’s Out’, carries with it a sense of drifting nostalgia (“Guess you got a head start, or am I running behind?”) also seen in skate media, as many clips still look to emulate the old-school camcorder visuals that were popular when skating really took off in the 80s.
Unfortunately, while the skateboarding has come a long way since then, stereotypes around gender and gender roles persist — especially online, where female skaters are routinely targeted for criticism and scorn.
“The definition of a poser,” reads one comment on a TikTok of a female skater. “That’s not skating, it’s cruising,” reads another.
A quick scroll is all it takes to find a video of two men pretending to be female skaters, feigning poor balance and coordination. It has more than 300,000 likes. There are countless videos in this style swamping the #skatergirl hashtag.
Even when skilled female skaters post content, the comments appear: “Cool, the only girl skater on this app that’s not a poser.”
These examples likely arise from the fact that skateboarding has been a traditionally male-dominated pastime since its inception.
But, especially in recent years, this has changed, as scores of women and girls picked up a board and began to learn.
Posts using #skatergirl now outnumber those using #skaterboy on both Instagram and TikTok, as female skaters make themselves known.
“There’s always going to be room to progress more,” said Tom. “There’s always going to be something new to learn.”
As for skate culture, he said it’s heading in the right direction. “Female skating has come a f*****g long way, compared to what it was back in the day. I’m pretty sure Elissa Steamer’s one of the only female skaters you could’ve named ten years ago, whereas now, you’ve got a lot of younger up-and-coming female skateboarders, which is f*****g great.” (We listed five female skateboarders to keep your eye on in 2021.)
While traditional skate media may be lagging behind, the community is taking positive steps towards proper representation for all — helped on by the rising popularity of female skate groups like The Skate Kitchen and the emergence of female-centric skate brands.
The bottom line? Skateboarding is for everyone. Go defy some gender roles.
You can check out Gender Roles’ latest single, ‘Dead or Alive/So Useless’, on Spotify here.
