Reading Assignment Sport video game

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of the practice’s values, for many skateboarders are in fact attempting to escape the competitive world of traditional sports.

Mythmaking, Brand Making, and Authenticity, 2001–6 In 2001, former professional skateboarder Stacey Peralta released Dogtown and Z-Boys, a documentary depicting the lives of the Zephyr Skateboarding Team based in South Santa Monica and Venice, California (Dogtown). As I have noted, this award-winning documentary positions the 1970s skateboarding era as a moment of working-class teen rebellion. [250]

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g=dculture;id=N329;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] More than telling a partial history of

skateboarding, this documentary produces a myth central to skateboarding’s current definition as a mainstream but edgy culture. Released just as the mainstream media were beginning to worry about marketers’ co-optation of skateboarding, the film serves as a cultural reminder that the practice is supposedly rooted in rebellion and thereby, I argue, mitigates the dampening effect that marketing may have on skateboarding’s image. [251]

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Although the mainstream press noted the self-mythologizing that was operating in the documentary—it does, after all, feature Peralta and his friends prominently—critics were generally enamored by what Roger Ebert called its “infectious enthusiasm.” [252] [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--

skate-life-re-imagining-white-masculinity?g=dculture;id=N331;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] More

important, the press used the film as an opportunity to discuss skateboarding’s “roots.” The New York Times reported in one article:

The golden days are resurrected in explosive, freewheeling montages that synchronize old home movies and [skateboarding photographer Craig] Stecyk’s photographs with a rock soundtrack . . . into a synergistic rush that captures the sport’s

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exuberant bad-boy aesthetic and lends it a mystical glamour. Beyond being an exhibition of physical prowess and daring, the essence of skateboarding excellence is that elusive personal quality known as style. That’s why the movie’s suggestion that skateboarding is an art form—with its emphasis on grace, inventiveness, and self-expression—doesn’t seem so far-fetched. [253] [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-imagining-white-

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Dogtown and Z-Boys reinserted notions of style and expression into discussions of skateboarding that had come to be dominated by a focus on The X Games and competition. Of course, Dogtown’s styles were quickly appropriated by the fashion world. Vintage skateboarding T-shirts and Vans became popular, and high fashion picked up on this trend. One fashion industry insider said of the Dogtown style, “So much of youth culture has been overexposed and this feels so fresh. They had so much attitude and style, and it was so natural—the bright, colorful, sporty, fun feeling.” Another said, “That whole Dogtown look is really so much about lifestyle and belonging, and the mix of sunshine and rebellion is really intoxicating.” [254]

[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-imagining-white-masculinity?

g=dculture;id=N333;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] The appropriation of this image did not

seem to negate its power, for even 2005’s fictionalized version of Dogtown, titled Lords of Dogtown and written by Stacey Peralta, was well received. The New York Times credited director Catherine Hardwicke (who also made Thirteen) for its “appropriately scruffy, unpolished look consistent with the resourceful, do-it-yourself aesthetic of the place and time it depicts. . . . [The] scenes have both the loose, stop-and-start rhythms of a long summer day and the restless, competitive energy of young men in the heat of adolescence.” The reviewer continued, “[T]here is something about it that feels right—the looseness of its construction, the eclectic welter of its soundtrack, the faces of its cast.” [255] [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-imagining-white-masculinity?

g=dculture;id=N334;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] Entertainment Weekly deemed the film

“rare in its grit and authenticity” and praised its use of “a God-on-the-street’s- eye view of skateboard heaven.” [256] [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-

life-re-imagining-white-masculinity?g=dculture;id=N335;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] Although these

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point-of-view shots evoke reality in their tone, they are also a convention of the niche skateboarding videos, which I discuss later.

Kyle Kusz offers a scathing critique of the racial politics of both Dogtown and Z-Boys and Lords of Dogtown. The documentary version of the Z-boys’ story, he argues, enacts “a new cultural racism” that reinscribes the dominance of whiteness by depicting young white men as socially marginalized heroes who can do no wrong (despite their criminal behavior). [257]

[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-imagining-white-masculinity?

g=dculture;id=N336;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] The film particularizes the boys’

whiteness by referencing their working-class status and superficial relationship to racial “difference” (via skate shop owner Jeff Ho, Z-“boy” Peggy Oki, and Z-boy Tony Alva’s nonspecified race). By making these claims to difference while maintaining the centrality of the boys’ whiteness, Kusz argues, the film recenters whiteness. Lords of Dogtown, while still noting the boys’ economic marginality, positions the skaters as lords, as masters of their domain. In the post-9/11 world in which that film was made, Kusz argues, cultural texts worked to present men as imperialistic dominators rather than a group besieged by the powers of women, people of color, and the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) community. Both of these texts, then, walk the line between images of white male dominance and youthful rebellion. The New York Times summed up skateboarding’s image as such.

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5/3/2018 Skate Life: Re-Imagining White Masculinity

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Rebellious boys skating in an empty swimming pool in Dogtown and Z-Boys. Simultaneously gritty and utopic, the image captures the contradtictions of skate culture.

(Courtesy PhotoFest.)

Much of its current appeal comes from the image of skaters as loners whose very status as outsiders makes them all members of a tribe of sorts. This quality of being an individual and yet still belonging is classic Americana—and it’s what corporations and magazines try to sell with T-shirts that say ‘Skate or Die.’ Perhaps this makes skateboarding not an extreme sport, but a trick of balancing extremes. [258]

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Skateboarding certainly did begin to balance extremes, as I have been arguing, and The X Games also worked to maintain the edginess of extreme sports even as it proclaimed their centrality to modern athletics. “While business has gotten bigger,” TV Guide reported, “the sports themselves are still conducted in a heady cloud of street-style, indie machismo. Competitors perform against a pumping wall of music.” [259]

[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-imagining-white-masculinity?

g=dculture;id=N338;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] The industry continually worked to

maintain this image. New York Times reported:

An insider’s understanding has kept the lucrative board-sports industrial complex—skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing— mostly in the hands of hard-core practitioners, even as these sports have grown more popular. Mainstream companies like Nike that have easily penetrated other sports often find themselves on the outside looking in, struggling to gain traction with action-sports athletes and fans who define their world by its anti-establishment bent. [260] [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/-

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The article further explained the meaning of authenticity, which in large part relied on distribution decisions rather than a perceived level of sales. Lora Bordmer of Action Sports Retailer, a board sports industry trade show, explained that exclusive distribution to smaller board shops—rather than large retailers—is a key component of authenticity. In 2006, Nike was more successfully breaking into the skateboarding market by distributing its shoes in board shops and sponsoring small contests; Pacific Sunwear, a mall chain that sells extreme sports apparel, made a major mistake when it ran an ad in skateboarding magazines with a skateboard’s trucks (axles) on backward. [261]

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By the time Dogtown was released, Tony Hawk had become both a myth and a brand. Stacey Peralta called him “a part of American culture,” and Sports Illustrated deemed him “a one-man marketing phenomenon” and “a legend in the world of skateboarding.” The youth marketing company Alloy found him to be the “coolest big-time athlete” in a survey, and fellow professional skateboarder Bucky Lasek claimed, “He could put his name on toilet paper and sell it to the world.” [262] [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-

imagining-white-masculinity?g=dculture;id=N341;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] Although, as I have

noted, Tony Hawk claims that he has made careful choices in order to preserve his authenticity, his history in the sport, as well as his sheer talent, has also served this purpose. Still his image is constantly in question.

Marketer John Griffin called Tony Hawk “a guy who, for corporate America, can reach parents. You get a family guy, a squeaky-clean guy.” But Hawk’s image is not all goody-goody, for he appeared on MTV’s Jackass and Viva La Bam, and Jackass’s executive producer, Jeff Tremaine, reported, “His concern about damage to his image doesn’t override his sense of humor.” [263]

[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-imagining-white-masculinity?

g=dculture;id=N342;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] Crucial to Tremaine’s claim is the notion

that Hawk appeared in the MTV shows because he found them amusing, not because they would balance his family-guy image well and remind viewers of his roots in the skateboarding community. These roots have been used by corporations to project the legitimacy of various mainstream products. The X

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Games owes its success in part to Hawk’s early involvement, as “He signed on and enlisted cool skateboarders who might otherwise have rejected the event as crass commercialism.” [264] [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-

imagining-white-masculinity?g=dculture;id=N343;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] Hawk also brought

such authenticity to Activision’s line of Tony Hawk video games. “An avid gamer, Hawk insisted on creative input,” advising the developers on the game’s combinations of skateboarding tricks as well as nixing over-the-top moves and cheesy settings. [265] [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-

imagining-white-masculinity?g=dculture;id=N344;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] In 2006, Hawk

participated in a major cross-promotional endeavor with Jeep, Rolling Stone, and Activision, which included an “advertorial” in Rolling Stone; a Jeep Wrangler outfitted with a skateboard, snowboard, and surfboard; an appearance by Jeep and its Toledo, Ohio, factory in the latest Tony Hawk video game; and several other initiatives. Pat Hawk again made clear Tony’s commitment to authenticity, noting that he was once a teenager intent on spotting sellouts. She told the New York Times, “That’s why Tony doesn’t have a deal with Nike” or Gap—because skateboarders do not buy Nike or Gap products. Conversely, Tony Hawk has explained that he endorses McDonald’s because “I take my kids to McDonald’s. I always order a No. 2.” [266]

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Hawk’s image, carefully maintained, is also carefully naturalized. His company, Birdhouse, sponsors a team of street skateboarders (whose legitimacy has been less frequently challenged than that of the vert [vertical] skateboarders who are featured on The X Games), and he makes surprise appearances on their tours in such mundane places as Fargo and Wichita. Hawk also maintains a foundation that sponsors public skate parks, and his demo fees support the foundation. He defends himself against claims of selling out by arguing that he skateboards for the love of it rather than for the money or fame. [267] [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-imagining-white-

masculinity?g=dculture;id=N346;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] He told Time:

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I always keep the focus of what I do on the skating itself. I’ve turned away plenty of endorsements and promotional opportunities when the basis was not around skating. Quality skating will always be at the fore-front of the image I project, and if I start sucking, then I don’t deserve any of this stuff, and I won’t be out there promoting it. [268]

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This argument is supported in part by Hawk’s history in a sport that has not always been popular. His autobiography, distributed by Disney, takes care to detail Hawk’s struggles when street skating became more popular than vert, and he is routinely characterized as a skateboarder who did not take his success to heart at earlier times when skateboarding was popular. [269]

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In fact, Hawk is positioned as a success story in the face of other skateboarders who allowed fandom to go their heads during skateboarding’s earlier heyday in the 1970s. Several cautionary tales enforce this notion while at the same time reminding audiences of skateboarding’s rebellious undertones. Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator, a 2003 documentary by Helen Stickler, tells the story of former professional skateboarder, Mark “Gator” Rogowski, who is in jail for murder and rape. The film positions Gator as a legend of the 1980s skateboarding scene, an early professional who was making 100,000 dollars annually in 1984 at the age of 17. The New York Times reported that “the fame would prove destructive. Mr. Rogowski grew arrogant, alienating himself from his skateboard buddies, falling into trouble with the law.” In one scene in the movie, Gator says, “I love getting arrested. I’m one of the most illegal skaters in the circuit.” [270]

[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-imagining-white-masculinity?

g=dculture;id=N349;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] Filmmaker Helen Stickler, a former

stripper, pushes this cautionary tale even farther, suggesting that she could identify with Gator in that both skateboarding and stripping are “alternative communities, industries where ‘youth and vitality are sold.’” Youth, she said,

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is fleeting and easily lost, and without it Gator had nothing. [271]

[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-imagining-white-masculinity?

g=dculture;id=N350;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] Although a review of the film notes that

Rogowski showed symptoms of manic depression, much of the film focuses on his poor response to fame. [272] [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-

imagining-white-masculinity?g=dculture;id=N351;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] These discussions, of

course, ignore the way in which patriarchal structures encourage the gender inequality that contributes to the existence of rape.

In yet another cautionary tale, Sports Illustrated ran a feature story on former professional skateboarder Christian Hosoi, who was a champion vertical skateboarder in the 1980s and 1990s with Tony Hawk and was invited to be a central contestant in the first Extreme Games. Hosoi did not attend the games, however, because in the zeal of his early fame and fortune he had descended into drug addiction and was on the run from the authorities. Sports Illustrated’s overview pits Hosoi and Hawk against one another, pointing out that Hawk’s father instructed him to do calisthenics before contests while Hosoi’s father “would alternate sucking pure air from an oxygen tank and taking bong hits.” [273] [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--

skate-life-re-imagining-white-masculinity?g=dculture;id=N352;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] Furthermore,

Hosoi was highly successful in the mid-1980s, sponsored by Oakley and Swatch and appearing in a Beastie Boys video as well as Coke and Pepsi ads. In response to that success, he “bought a Mustang, a Harley-Davidson, a tricked-out Jeep and a McLaren sports car, all before he had a driver’s license. He hung out with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Beastie Boys, Ice-T and the actors River Phoenix and David Arquette,” unlike Tony Hawk, whose father urged him to invest his money in a house. [274]

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g=dculture;id=N353;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] Hawk reported, “I didn’t fall into the trap

of celebrity and partying and burning out, so when things turned back around, I was one of the only guys from that generation still skating hard.” [275]

[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-imagining-white-masculinity?

g=dculture;id=N354;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] By 2005, Hosoi had been released from

jail and was serving as an announcer on The X Games, solidifying the notion

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that Hawk had taken the correct path. [276]

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Hosoi and Rogowski’s stories serve several purposes. They operate as mythic cautionary tales, reminding audiences of a moment when skateboarding was supposedly rebellious, underground, and “subcultural.” They suggest that skateboarding has a long history that should be remembered reverentially and that its rebellious roots are somehow innate to the practice, not a construction of the niche industry. At the same time, these stories remind us that Tony Hawk was a part of an industry that crashed and that, through both business acumen and dedication to the practice, he managed to survive. Hawk, then, cannot be a sellout, for he clearly loves skateboarding so much that he stuck with it even when times were tough for other skateboarders. Finally, these tales remind us that fame can have consequences and current skateboarding stars should not get caught up in money, attention, or celebrity. Rather, they should, like Hawk, keep their focus on skateboarding.

Alongside these reminders of rebellion, however, the mainstream press between 2003 and 2006 began to suggest that attitudes about skateboarders were changing. By 2002, the press was certain that skateboarding and extreme sports had become firmly entrenched in youth culture. One 26-year- old man told American Demographics, “Extreme sorts are my Monday Night Football,” [277] [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-imagining-white-

masculinity?g=dculture;id=N356;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] and the president of American

Sports Data, Inc., said “These new sports are an authentic slice of the wider youth culture and not just a fad.” [278] [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-

life-re-imagining-white-masculinity?g=dculture;id=N357;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] In 2002, Better

Homes and Gardens, which had long decried the dangers of skateboarding, noted, “The label ‘extreme sport’ is outdated for skateboarding, as is the stereotype of skateboard kids—radical daredevils with multicolored hair who hang out on street corners.” The magazine deemed the practice “a mega sport that attracts the whole family,” pointed out its cooperative nature, and noted that professional skater Bob Burnquist likened it to a new form of playing

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catch. [279] [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-imagining-white-masculinity?

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Hartford, Connecticut, was dubbed a skateboarding hot spot, and, rather than fighting this designation, town leaders embraced its potential for increased tourism. While the owner of a local skate shop there worked to promote Hartford’s skateboarding potential, convincing national skateboarding companies to tape parts of their videos in the town, local officials tacitly and explicitly supported the effort. The Hartford mayor, rather than denouncing the skaters’ increased presence, said, “I hope they’re spending money in our city,” and local businesspeople, while they worried about liability and asked skateboarders not to use private property, characterized the practice as “exciting” and the skateboarders as “friendly.” Local fast food restaurants enjoyed increased revenues, and an employee of Hartford Proud and Beautiful stated vigorously, “Don’t you write anything bad about those kids. Skateboarding is just youth and exuberance.” [280]

[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-imagining-white-masculinity?

g=dculture;id=N359;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] In November 2003, the New York Times

reported, “Demographers who made a fetish of soccer moms in the 90s may well be swooning over skateboard moms by this decade’s end,” as many suburban parents were supporting their children’s skateboarding by allowing them to build ramps in their backyards. The newspaper also reported that liability was not a major issue at public skate parks, for the Consumer Product Safety Commission had found that skateboarding yielded a smaller percentage of injuries than basketball and football. Doug Wyseman, who served local governments as a risk management consultant, noted that skateboard injuries did not often result in lawsuits, for skateboarders saw them as “a badge of courage.” [281] [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-re-imagining-white-masculinity?

g=dculture;id=N360;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] In 2005, the Manhattan Parks

Department in New York City decided to redesign the Brooklyn Banks near the Brooklyn Bridge as a “skateboard-friendly park” that would include benches, ramps, and planters on which skaters could practice, as well as areas to be used in other capacities. [282] [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/toi/7300267.0001.001/--skate-life-

re-imagining-white-masculinity?g=dculture;id=N361;note=ptr;rgn=div1;view=trgt;xc=1] More than a brand

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and more than a myth, skateboarding has again been legitimized as a relatively harmless—but still cool—practice.

It remains to be seen whether skateboarding’s continued acceptance in mainstream culture will cause its eventual downfall. Although I have argued throughout that the practice’s subcultural roots are mostly a discursive production of the media, skateboarding is, nonetheless, an activity that has generated its own niche industry and culture and is supported by enthusiasts who regard it as a location of difference, as I note in the next chapter. Skateboarders are in constant correspondence with these depictions of their culture, and in their own spaces—particularly the skate shop—they teach one another how to manage skateboarding’s appropriation. Through their discussions about and with niche skate media and their explications of skateboarding’s appeal, skateboarders construct a seemingly “authentic” definition of their practice.

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