Youth in Germany

For a long time, "youth culture" translated into "boy culture". In environments where more serious sports or even violence plays a major role, in particular, girls merely used to be admitted as eye candy. That has changed. A rising number of girls are getting up on their skateboards rather than applauding the boys from the sidelines. And, regrettably, more and more girls in the right-wing scene are beginning to raise their fists against foreigners and outsiders instead of making do with the rather more passive role of the girl at their boyfriend's side.

The northern end of Oberbaum bridge that connects the (West) Berlin district of Kreuzberg with the (East) district of Friedrichshain is a busy place. The Warschauer Strasse subway station is a commuter hub and the gateway into the city centre for Friedrichshain residents. However, it is also the destination of many tourists who travel here to look round the Eastside Gallery and local pubs to get an idea of how East and West are finally melding together. They need to pass by the square at Revaler Strasse along the M10/13 tram line, where another, more athletic kind of reunification has found a home. Here, skateboarders practise their moves alongside BMX bikers, joined only recently a couple of girls who go through their ollies and kickflips just as casually as the boys, dressed in the same baggy street style clothes they bought round the corner at Big Brobot on Kopernikusstrasse together with the latest manga comic. Are these harmonious appearances deceptive?

Forladysonly

A glance at various skateboarder webforums reveals that users are highly divided on whether girls should be allowed to skate or not. Many, including boys, are annoyed by the debate. So "bo", a 20-year-old "dude", as he calls himself, decided to set up forladysonly, a website for young female skateboarders. After all, he says, it’s all about the sport and anyone should be able to practise it, whether male or female. "I was just curious about what’s happening in the girls' scene. Also, there’s not that many female skateboarders in the cities yet, so they go online and arrange to meet, or just chat. Boys have been doing that for a long time, but I realised there was just no forum only for girls," explains bo. However, things have started to change, he continues. "Six years ago the European Skateboard Championships introduced its first Girls’ Jam and had nine entrants. Last year, they had 24. A lot of the smaller contests have Girls’ Jams, too. I think the main reason for the boys’ change in attitude has been Eveline Bouillart. She’s just amazing. She gets a lot of media attention, and even the hardliners can't do anything about it."

Fliegen lernen - Learning to fly

A successful German skateboarder is Rodi Münzel, for whom Eveline Bouillart is also a role model even though she’s already a star in her own right, as demonstrated by Fliegen lernen (Learning to fly) by Kim Koch, the first feature film to focus on skateboarding girls in Germany. Rodi is joined in the film by Nina Braun, the founder of Sumo, the first and to date only skateboarder label for girls (slogan: "Don't be a pussy, be a Sumo!"), and Ester Vonplon, a photography student and skateboarder. While the film makes reference to discrimination by boys and sexism, they remain minor issues. Kim Koch’s documentary has a far wider horizon. It's a humorous and intelligent look at the various aspects and interpretations of modern feminism, personal liberty and ultimately, also identity. Fliegen lernen was Koch's postgraduate production project at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. "I read an article and became interested in the subject. It fits in well with the issues I had when I was growing up. How can you muddle your way through life? How much control do you have over it? Where are the (physical) limits? Why do you fail, and how much is that determined by existing gender roles, clichés and your own identity issues?" explains Koch. She gets pretty positive responses to her film - at least at festivals. She promoted her production for one and a half years and had to take a lot of criticism from editors, male and female. The social policy relevance of Fliegen lernen appeared to have to back down in the face of short-sighted statements like "Girls in a male world - oh no, not again!" or "Are the storylines strong enough?" A digital documentary channel has now finally shown an interest.

Altogether, the issue of female youth culture in Germany is not yet as well researched and documented as in the Anglo-American world. Even the major pop-culture phenomenon of the Riot Grrls in the 1990s failed to leave a permanent mark on the youth scene. But the issue is getting attention. Sociologists and youth researchers are observing how girls are conquering the entire street art scene and interpreting this as a positive form of emancipation. Then again, emancipation is possibly not the right word to describe the emergence of physically violent girls on the right-wing scene.

The right-wing scene

"21-year-old female right-winger from Halberstadt attacks other woman after mugging" read the headlines in all major newspapers in December 2007. Current studies suggest women and girls in the right-wing scene are exhibiting a rising tendency towards violence. "Almost half of the estimated 50,000 members in the Kameradschaften are women, while 10 per cent of extreme right-wing offences are attributable to women," says sociologist Michaela Köttig. The problem is that right-wing women play very diverse roles and definitely need to be perceived as "emancipated", she continues. There are even young women who not only join the nationalist NPD party and take on official party functions, but also start to work as educators or social workers so they can politically influence young people. They also organise "family days" in the Mecklenburg countryside to sell baby clothes along with their ideologies, explains Köttig. "It is often overlooked that these women are independent political actors and sometimes also criminal offenders," she stated during a conference in Rostock in September 2007.

Be they emancipated or not, in these sub-cultures both young female skateboarders and right-wingers have developed their own specific strategies to deal with gender roles and structures. Ultimately, however, these strategies are a form of protest against the existing social system. It is the responsibility of society to use just as broad a range of strategies to create more freedom of movement for the one group, and restrict it for the other.

Further reading: Gabriele Rohmann (ed.): Krasse Töchter. Mädchen in Jugendkulturen. Archiv der Jugendkulturen Berlin, 312 pages, August 2007. ISBN: 978-3940213372. Sonja Eismann (ed.): Hot Topic. Popfeminismus heute. Ventil-Verlag, Mainz Oktober 2007, 300 pages. ISBN: 978-3931555757. Holger von Krosigk/Helge Tscharn: Absolute Beginners. Skateboard Streetstyle Book 1. 160 pages, Berlin 2000. ISBN: 978-3-932170-42-3. Holger von Krosigk/Helge Tscharn: Elements of Street. Skateboard Streetstyle Book 2. 160 pages, Berlin 2003. ISBN: 978-3-932170-66-9. Holger von Krosigk/Helge Tscharn: Alles über Skateboarding. History, Basics, Tricks, Material. 176 pages, Berlin 2006. ISBN: 978-3-932170-93-5. (all three skateboarding books published by Tropen Verlag in the series "carbon copy books") Renate Feldmann: Braune Schwestern? Unrast-Verlag, 144 pages, March 2005. ISBN-13: 978-3897718098 Michaela Köttig: Lebensgeschichten rechtsextrem orientierter Mädchen und junger Frauen. 402 pages, Psychosozial-Verlag, May 2005. ISBN: 978-3898062343