Skateboarding and Femininity: Gender, Space-Making and Expressive Movement

Skateboarding and Femininity explores and highlights the value of femininity both within skateboarding and wider culture. This book examines skateboarding’s relationship to gender politics through a consideration of the personal politics connected to individual skateboarders, the social-spatial arenas in which skateboarding takes place, and by understanding the performance of tricks and symbolic movements as part of gender-based power dynamics. Dani Abulhawa anaylses the discursive frameworks connected to skateboarding philanthropic projects and how these operate through gendered tropes. Through the author’s work with skateboarding charity SkatePal, this book offers an alternative way of recognising the value of skateboarding philanthropy projects, proposing a move toward a more open and explorative somatic practice perspective.

Dani Abulhawa is a Senior Lecturer in Performance at Sheffield Hallam University, an ambassador for skateboarding charity SkatePal, and a committed amateur skateboarder. Dani has authored articles and chapters and created performances exploring skateboarding, play, and dance/performance in relation to the personal-bodily politics of place.