The subculture of skateboarding: Beyond social resistance

Popular cultural activities have often been analyzed as a means of reproducing cultural norms and values. This study examined popular culture in a different manner; it investigated how popular culture was used as a place in which meanings and values were created and challenged, not automatically reproduced. This study investigated how one form of popular culture, skateboarding, was used as opposition or resistance to mainstream social values.;Qualitative methodologies of observation and interviews were used to describe the norms, values, and behaviors of the subculture of skateboarding. Data collection occurred over a two year period with over 40 interviews and over 100 hours of observation. The subculture of skateboarding was then compared to the norms, values, and behaviors of mainstream organized sport in order to determine whether normative resistance occurred.;Resistance to the normative base of capitalism was found in this subculture. Skateboarders resisted the norms and values of competition, instrumentalism, respect for authority, and the acceptance of unequal and exclusive positions by creating social relations of anti-competition, inclusion, cooperation, and self-expression.;The resistance to patriarchal relations was limited by contradictions. The norms and values of the subculture stated above have frequently been associated with femininity, yet, the skaters re-defined these attributes as masculine. They resisted traditional masculine behavior by re-defining masculinity as inclusive, cooperative, and self-expressive. The contradiction arose when skating was also defined as a male realm, and therefore females were not generally encouraged to participate.;Organized mainstream sport has been one cultural sphere in which capitalist and patriarchal relations have been reproduced. This study focused on the normative resistance to these inequitable social relations within the subculture of skateboarding in northeastern Colorado.;The subculture of skateboarding appears to provide males with an alternative form of masculinity; one which emphasizes cooperation, inclusion, anti-competition, and self-expression. Yet, the transformative potential is limited by the exclusion of females from participation.