India’s female skateboarders look to break with tradition, empower others, and shatter stereotypes
- Highlighted in music video Alpha Female by English band Wild Beasts, the skateboarding craze is sweeping India, and prompting cultural change
- India’s first professional skateboarder, Atita Verghese, wants girls to use the sport to break down social barriers, and have fun doing it
A woman in a pink sari and a gold nose ring glides on her skateboard along the roads of Bangalore, India, as bewildered bystanders look on. Another girl in a denim jacket and wearing a black cap zips down a busy street, also on her skateboard, as she clings to the side of an auto-rickshaw, while a group of young girls and women in kurtas and saris skateboard together on a highway.
These scenes are from the music video Alpha Female by the English indie rock band Wild Beasts, who are challenging gender stereotypes and championing female empowerment in their own unique way.
The video went viral, with more than 600,000 views in a week on BBC World Service. Sasha Rainbow, the film’s UK-based director, wanted to create a video that celebrated women bringing about change.
“Because skateboarding is so new in India, it hasn’t been able to become a male-dominated sport,” says Rainbow.
“Skating is great because it leaves space for the individual to work at their own pace in a social environment and I think in particular that is interesting for young girls – not just to be competitive, but to have fun, fall over, and pick themselves back up, dust themselves off, and do it all over again, for pure enjoyment. I wanted to commemorate this special moment and show that massive cultural change can start with just one person.”