When you think about pro-skateboarders, do you think about girls?
Well, you should- because women are dominating action sports, and have been for decades. Just ask Cindy Whitehead. Since the 70’s, Cindy has been one of the most prominent faces in skateboarding, and her career has been one milestone achievement after another. From being the first female skater to be sponsored by Puma to having her skating memorabilia featured in the Smithsonian to being honoured with a spot in the Skateboarding Hall of Fame, Cindy’s impact in the skating world has been nothing short of incredible.
Now, she’s helping other female skateboarders thrive in a male-dominated sport through her brand and website Girl Is NOT A 4 Letter Word, and through the publication of It’s Not About Pretty, a photography book celebrating girls who skate.
Cindy sat down with us to discuss gender equality, breaking barriers and of course, skateboarding.
The first question we have is about how you started your skating career. Was this something you thought you would pursue professionally when you were younger?
When I first started skateboarding, I did it for fun. There weren’t a lot of contests and I was just doing it because I loved it. Things just progress and it heads in a different direction – I never started off thinking I wanted to be a professional skateboarder. It was simply for the love of being on my skateboard, and one thing led to another.
Could you tell us more about your foundation Girl is Not a 4 Letter Word?
Girl is Not a 4 Letter Word was created to shine a light on girls in action sports because they’re not seen or heard as much as they should be. It’s also about giving them opportunities out there. We put together things with outside companies to help them get sponsorships. We also put together PR for them; we’ll approach different magazines and say, “Hey, we have this girl who’s doing really cool things, not just in skateboarding – maybe she does some other cool things too, and maybe you want to write about her.” We also sponsor girls ourselves. We help them get into contests, get the gear that they need, and help sponsor female-based skateboard contests like Exposure Skate or Poseidon. We also have products that give back to girls in skateboarding through 501C3 non-profits. It’s good to be multidimensional. We promote all girls that skateboard; that is our mission. We’re kind of different in that sense – that we promote everyone, but we also have a little team that we support in other ways as well. All the girls on our team do something special besides skateboarding and it’s fun to talk about those things.
How were you treated as a girl in a male-dominant sport? Did you feel pressure to prove your skills?
To get respect you have to give respect – but you also have to hold your own. I think the boys really taught me about being assertive in a good way, holding my own, giving respect, and getting respect. You earn it, and you show that you are just as worthy as anybody else there. I feel that I was treated great, but I have a tendency to surround myself with people who are like-minded, so if I feel that someone isn’t down with what I’m doing, I kind of steer away. I steer away from the bad and cultivate the good. When I grew up skateboarding, I had a close group of friends and teammates that I didn’t feel any different from. I felt nothing but pure love and stoke. I think it’s when people on the outside looking in that were questioning why I was doing this and making the comments that is part of the reason why I wore the headphones; I don’t want to hear negativity, I just want good vibes and a good time and I like to tune out all the bad stuff.
Was gender inclusiveness something you noticed immediately when you started skating? Did you know you wanted to focus on this issue early on?
There were things, growing up in that environment, that I knew were drastically different. For instance, if I opened a skateboard magazine, I would just see guy after guy and very few girls. When I was a bit younger, I used to think there’s not many of us out there; it was very disproportionate, the amount of girls I saw in magazines versus the amount of boys. It wasn’t until I got a little older that I started realizing, “Hey, that’s not really fair. We aren’t being covered like the guys are being covered.” I was definitely aware of some discrepancies as far as boys versus girls in my sport. My way of dealing with it was not to complain, and not to make a big deal out of it, but create opportunities for myself by asking for what I wanted.
Do you feel the action sports field has grown more gender-inclusive since you started in the industry?
I think in the 70s, when girls were doing freestyle skateboarding, [gender inclusiveness] was pretty good, because it was accepted for girls to do freestyle. When we moved into transition skating, that’s where it got a little disproportionate. When we moved into street skating, it really became about guys and not so much about girls at all. Now, I think we’re moving into a situation where, with gender equality being the key focus on the Olympics, if you add a new sport, it has to be guys and girls. We’re seeing more women being included in skateboarding, in magazines, in contests because that’s the direction we’re heading. I hope it continues in that direction. I still see things that need to be fixed and addressed, and I think that’s just normal, but I think we’re moving towards a better time.
Do you feel that within the female skateboarding community there are any stereotypes or negative misconceptions? If so, how do you conform to or resist them?
I do. I feel that we still have this thing where you have to look pretty to be accepted or validated, or shown or sponsored, and I think that’s wrong. I think that if you’re an awesome skater, you’re an awesome skater, and the girls in street skating have brought this up quite often. A lot of the girls are treated differently by how they look — like, if you’re what society deems as pretty, you’re going to get more endorsements. In reality, pretty comes in all different kinds of packages. To me, the word ‘pretty’ is not to me what it may be to the general public. I think you can have a pretty soul, I think you can have a pretty mind — I think there are a lot of things about you that make up the word pretty, it’s not just a physical attribute.
Every day when I’m posting about girls skateboarding, I get the chance to look at those pictures that we shoot for Girl is Not a 4 Letter Word and be unbiased — to feature anyone and everyone who’s doing something awesome on our site, and it’s not about pretty.
How do you assert your femininity in this sport? How does this feminine energy translate into what you do?
I like to get up every day and say, “Who do I want to be today?” I’m also a fashion stylist, so I get to decide if a want to be a badass chick today, or badass with a little feminine sweetness to it — who do I want to project today? I do a lot of that through my clothes. I think that my attitude projects who I am during the day. I think the way I treat people projects who I am, and my femininity. I’m pretty stoked that I’m a girl. Women can be strong without it having to be a male trait. It’s a feminine trait to be strong as well.
Who are some of your female role models who have encouraged or inspired you throughout your career? What qualities do they possess that you admire?
I’ve always been a huge fan of Joan Jett and loved her stance on being a strong woman. She’s in a very male-dominated industry as well, and I’ve had the pleasure in the last year of getting to know her a little bit and having her do my introduction when I was inducted into the Skateboard Hall of Fame. To me, that was the biggest, most flattering thing I could have happen because she is a super strong role model for women out there. There are so many strong female role models out there. I think every day there are more and more women standing up and saying, “Hey, you can be any size or shape, you can choose to be a girly-girl, you can choose to be a badass tomboy, you can choose to be whatever you want, and that’s super cool.” And any guy out there that’s standing up for females is totally a hero of mine. I see a lot of those guys out there and I don’t want to forget about them.
How did other male skaters react when you started to gain attention?
I think they were all stoked for me when I was younger because I hung out with a group of boys, and when the magazine came out they thought that was super cool. I don’t remember anything negative. As an adult working on Girl is Not a 4 Letter Word, I’ve definitely heard some things — but I choose to ignore them. I either choose to confront or I weigh my options and say, ‘Is this worth wasting my energy on that could be better put to something positive?’ Not everybody has to be down with what I’m doing, and I’d rather know than think someone is down with it and then find out behind my back that they’re not.
Do men ever act like there is a divide between the genders- that female athletes aren’t as valid or don’t work as hard?
When we’re not paying female athletes what male athletes are getting, we’re saying that they don’t work as hard. If a girl goes out and she’s practicing just as hard as guys to compete yet the competition money that she wins is a lot less, are we not then saying that she’s not as worthy as a guy? I think women definitely feel it when they can’t make a living from their sport, and they’re not getting the endorsement deals that the guys are getting.
What was the most exciting moment in your career?
Just being a female skater in the 70s and getting to have that free lifestyle is probably the best thing about it. As an adult, skateboarding down the 405 Freeway during Carmageddon was one of the highlights for me. Doing a board colab with a male-dominated board company and having a whole skateboard line that gives back to girls in action sports — that’s one of the things I’m most happy and proud about, more than anything I accomplished as a younger skater. I think that helped fuel what I’m doing now.
What advice would you give young women trying to make a career out of sports? What were some of the challenges you faced?
I would say to do what you love, ask for what you want, keep pushing ahead, and surround yourself with like-minded people to help you attain your goals.
