Girls? Where do you belong. Everywhere.
Posted on
When you were a girl, where did you first learn you were not welcome? A skatepark, a train station, an ordinary street? Help #breakthebias this International Women’s Day week.
A groundbreaking Melbourne study reveals 12% of young women never return to a public space after experiencing sexual harassment or violence. Even before experiencing a verbal or physical assault, we switch on our safety radar and alter our behavior as to where we can go, and where we can’t.
Our skateparks can be the first place where our girls learn that public spaces might not be for them. Gritty, edgy environment primed for learning tricks, taking tumbles and riding waves of exhilaration when you master a drop in, a nollie, a fakie, a slide (just google them).
Turn up on a Saturday morning to a ‘Try skateboarding session’ run by the Canberra Skateboarding Association and you’ll find the majority are young girls having a go, encouraging each other as they try to master new skills in this safe space.
And that’s just it—these sessions are a welcoming and inclusive experience for girls who ordinarily might not hang out in the space.
But we need girls to be comfortable in spaces like skateparks. We need them to see others like them in a space to feel included.
It can be intimidating to try something new or to keep learning skills in a space when it doesn’t feel like you belong there, you feel unsafe, or you experience harassment.
Poppy Starr Olsen, Australia’s Olympic skater, knows that feeling well.
“When I started skateboarding, I was eight years old, and there were no other girl skateboarders,” says Poppy.
“I was actually the only girl at my skatepark for about three years, so I just learnt how to skate with guys pretty much.”
Let us flip that and listen to their voices so we can design spaces that let this generation know they are welcome – everywhere.
If you know a girl or are a girl aged 12 to 16 join Canberra’s first-ever ‘Skateshop’- a workshop on wheels where you share your views on skateparks and urban spaces.
Skateshop is on Saturday 26 March at the Belconnen Skatepark from 11 am to 12 pm (after the Try Skating Session from 9 am to 11 am).
