Now girls have certainly found a way to make a mark on the world! In a new music video titled Alpha Female, by the band Wild Beasts, the girls of Holystoked Collective and Girls Skate India – two all girl skating groups — are doing rounds on the Internet and have gone viral! The director, Sasha Rainbow, who hails from the UK documented how the two all-girl skating groups are teaching more women how to skateboard. In a chat with them, we get to know more.
The initial idea of the video was to pay tribute to girls outside the western world in countries like India, Afghanistan and Cambodia, where skateboarding is currently trending. “Sasha’s idea was to break away from the idea of what is seen as traditional, from the world outside,” says Rebecca George, one of the skateboarders in the video. To reiterate that, there are saree clad women on skateboards in a village – the troupe that Rebecca was leading! “It was definitely an experience of a lifetime. I got to teach these women about skateboarding and help in breaking the barrier, which was the idea Sasha wanted to depict,” says the skateboarding pro who has been at the sport for over two years now! And break barriers it did! “I have been skateboarding for over two years now and still every time people see a girl showing confidence or having fun, they tend to stare and make things awkward. We are hoping the mindset changes,” says Rebecca, who doubles as a freelance writer.
While skateboarding does give off a fun and easygoing vibe, it depicts so much more in the viral video. Throwing some insight on it, Channy Lowang, a Christ University student who is part of the Holystoked crew says, “There is no skateboarding at all in the Northeast, where I hail from. For me, it’s all about opportunity of toning down the sexism present in our society. Not only when it comes to skateboarding, when girls are seen doing anything the way guys do, it angers them and they tend to give you weird looks. I want to do as much as I can to get rid of the stigma.” The student along with her crew also helps in teaching underpreviliged girls how to skarebord, at various parks in Bengaluru. “There is so much scope because so many of them are genuinely interested and are good at it, but they don’t have as many opportunities as the rest of us do, and that’s another thing that needs to change,” she opines.
