The Compounding Nature of Inequality

A Tale of Two Skaters

Most people that know me also know that I like podcasts. I’ve written entire article introductions describing my previous, stateside podcast routine. It’s true that in rural Colombia the streaming is a little slower, the buffering a little longer, and one’s patience a little more essential, but I’ve somehow managed to maintain the habit, albeit at lower levels. Tuning in to the New York Times’ The Daily the other day, a story came on about the infamous former professional figure skater Tonya Harding and her possible involvement in the attack on her then rival Nancy Kerrigan. This controversial affair has been hashed and rehashed through legal battles, film, and now New York Times podcasts. I do not wish to discuss this controversy, however. Rather, I want to discuss something that struck me while listening along as I hung my damp laundry out to dry on my unpaved patio. The program’s host (Michael Barbaro) asked this particular episode’s correspondent (Taffy Brodesser-Akner) about Harding’s abilities as a skater before her life became embedded in controversy. Brodesser-Akner replied that Harding was a skater nearly unparalleled in skill and fully unparalleled in her unconventional attitude for an athlete of the sport. Though she received extremely high marks for her athletic prowess, she was often knocked (she literally lost points) for her style. She wore cheap clothes, skated to music like ZZ Top, smoked cigarettes, and spoke like one would expect after hearing the aforementioned qualities. These are the attributes that interest me. To me, her previously unseen skill as a skater combined with such an unconventional, screw-you attitude mirrors (almost eerily) the career of one of the godfathers of modern skateboarding, Jay Adams.

Tonya Harding

Jay Adams was from Venice, California. A surfer for the Zephyr Surf Shop, he and his teammates would often go skateboarding when there were no waves. With the invention of polyurethane wheels, and the discovery of concrete banks and empty pools, the Z-boys (as they were called) began to prioritize skateboarding more and more.

The typical style of skateboarding in the 1960s and early 1970s

Jay Adams’ first skateboarding competition at the1975 Bahne/Cadillac National Skateboard Championships was one that resembled a figure skating competition. Competitors would ride around a flat platform doing freestyle tricks to earn points. The aim of modern skateboarding is to interact with and overcome obstacles: a rail to grind, a set of stairs to kickflip, or a ramp to air out of. On the other hand, skateboarding of the 1960s was characterized by gymnastic type freestyling, which is where the comparison to figure skating comes in.

Adams was the first member of the Z-Boys to enter the competition. He appeared in ratty clothing, had an “ungentlemanly attitude” (The Zephyr Surf Shop was basically a gang), and skated to music that was uncharacteristic of the sport at the time. In the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys, Voodoo Child by Jimi Hendrix is played over his performance. In the Hollywood movie, he skates to Black Sabbath’s Iron Man. I think it’s safe to say that ZZ Top wouldn’t have been far down on his list of potential tracks.

Are you seeing the similarities to Harding yet?

A young Jay Adams displaying his surfer style of skateboarding

And what happened to Jay Adams? Was he knocked for his unconventional style? His poor music taste? His bad clothing? On the contrary, Jay Adams and his teammate Tony Alva took 3rd and 4th place in the competition. His low surf-like movements served as a revitalizing makeover to skateboarding that had never been seen before. The Z-Boys began to be featured regularly in Skateboarder Magazine. The teams eventual progression into pool skating further pushed the sport away from the olympic, freestyle performances of the past. Skateboarding had gone from this:

To this:

And this entire evolution was accompanied by sponsorships, fame, popularity, and — of course — money.

So why the stark difference between the story of Jay Adams and Tonya Harding. Obviously the controversy comes into play here, but, even before that, why was Jay immediately embraced after his very first competition? Was he a more agreeable person? Hardly, the unwelcome attitude to anyone outside of the Zephyr squad is famous. Jay would also go on to be involved in legal battles, prison sentences, and drug addiction. Here he is with a more modern hue:

Jay Adams in 2011

Was it the nature of the sport? This argument is likely the hardest to prove, but, at first glance it’s not a very good one. Both skateboarding (at the time of Jay) and figure skating (at the time of Harding) were judged in incredibly similar ways, had comparable “standards” of performance and attitude, and featured acrobatic freestyle performances. Perhaps the idea that skateboarding “isn’t a real sport” (a norm still pervasive in today’s society) allowed it more freedom to evolve? This difference remains a possibility, but I’m not convinced it’s enough to serve as the sole reason for its divergence.

What about the times? Well, the competition in which Jay Adams transformed skateboarding forever was in 1975. Tonya Harding rose to prominence in the late 1980s. One would expect a more progressive mindset in more modern times, no?

The only remaining variable is gender. Jay Adams changed skateboarding from a gentlemanly pastime to a spicy cocktail of badassery. Skateboarding changed from a well-respected man’s afternoon tom foolery to an activity pursued by a late-night partying, girl getting, smoking badass. Where was that outlet for Tonya Harding? I think it’s easy to forget that the 1990s, recent as they may still seem, were nearly 30 years ago. Especially with all the inappropriate conduct emerging about celebrities and sexual harassment, one can easily see that much of the treatment of women in even the recent past does not hold up to today’s ethical scrutiny, and we still have a ways to go. Even as Madeleine Albright became Bill Clinton’s ambassador to the UN and eventually the first female secretary of state, the 90s were still a time of fixed female roll expectations. The 21st century has not even escaped such a title. Females are expected to act and present themselves with grace and beauty, characteristics that Tonya Harding did not possess.

Now, I am not saying that Tonya Harding’s gender was the sole reason for her inability to succeed in figure skating, even before her infamous tangle with the law. However, I think one would be foolish to deny that gender has played a strong roll in the very different progression of the two sports. Moreover, skateboarding has experienced even more evolutions since the time of Jay Adams. The initial transformation of skateboarding has been compounded into more and more changes through decades providing fresh popularity and variety for an almost entirely male group of professional skateboarders, while figure skating (a mostly female sport) has remained stagnant. Just take a look at the differences below:

Friends skateboarding in the 1960s

Paul Rodriguez skating a stair set

Dorothy Hamill skating in the 1970s