Skirtboarders.com: Skateboarding Women and Self-Formation as Ethical Subjects

Abstract

The Skirtboarders, a Montreal-based crew of female skateboarders, purposely challenge discourses of femininity through an Internet skateboarding blog. Interviews with crew members reveal the similarity between their sporting and Internet practices and processes that Foucault (1986, p. 28) referred to as “self-formation as an ‘ethical subject’”. We draw on the four aspects that Foucault outlined by which an individual constitutes herself as an ethical subject—ethical substance, mode of subjection, ethical work and telos—to analyze the Skirtboarders’ reflexivity and critical engagement through their skateboarding blogging experiences. The results illustrate how sportswomen-driven forms of social media can become a means of individualized and collective ethical transformation.