Yesterday I met Jo for a beer. Actually, I had an Orange Juice “no ice with a paper straw”; Jo had the beer and drank it from the bottle. I always loved to see women drinking beer from the bottle. Such a simple gesture that hides much more than one can see on the surface – strong personality, anti-mainstream behaviour, bla bla bla.
We all know women do not drink beer, it grows a belly, as advertising like to teach us. Seeing Jo, to whom many would call tomboy or Maria-rapaz, things do not come by the book, left alone by Hollyhood movies or hornbooks. Same goes for me and many women around me, specially on adulthood, where interests end up choosing friends, more than other circumstances.
Growing up, Jo was one of the few girls that would brave the skate park, even though she was on inlines. Same goes for me playing football. Not that I liked it but because I liked even less staying seated on the bench starring at the boys, even though I knew perfectly who they were. I always preferred moving the body than engaging in group gossip, I group I did not belong to. Conversations, clothes preferences, delicate bodies, all contrasting with the rebel spirit my wavy hair and athletic legs were already showing a very young age.
They call us tomboys, boyish girls, Maria-Rapaz, whatever. I mean, who cares as all these words embody the same mindset: a girl that does not behave like a girl, that has little girly-like atitudes, that is not like other girls, whatever that means. They call us these names and so many other things, but as we age we’ve started to realise that probably that is nothing weird about this.
Alpha females. If you’ve never heard this denomination, it may be because we don’t talk that much about the theme, at least not in Portugal. The word comes from the latin word alfa and it is “normally used as an adjective to mention the first or the most prominent occurrence, like alpha male, the alpha star from a constellation, or the alpha version of a program”. Here what matters is the natural world angle, as we’re all animals, the most polished version of them all ( we like to think).
Alpha designates the leader of the group, the stronger, the one who has more status, bridging us to the masculine universe. However, and reasearching biologic investigation a bit further, alpha as also started to be used to talk about women, wow. Both men and women can actually have similar traits like confidence, lideraship, assertivity. The difference is how they tend to do it: either competition or collaboration. We sign for the later.
Collaboration over competition is our mojo at KOOL SCTY, a sentiment we feel when women come together to do amazing things that were traditionally associated with the masculine gender. Let’s go back to Jo, whose life has sheped her into this powerful alpha female. The inlines were replaced by all sorts and shapes of boards, from surf to snowboard, skate to longboard. The good news is that she is not alone.
On the same board game, there are many other women around the globe that have these independence and leadership characteristics, usually pros at these sports traditionally dominated by men – but this is another debate, our dear friends. However, they do it in a very elegant and feminine way.
Always attentive to trends, Jo started cooking her dream of creating a “women with boards club”. Slowly, but surely with all the ups and downs creating something comes with, Jo found the right supporters and created KOOK SCTY, with the aim of supporting other women and men with the same mindset: to show the world what is it to be badass in femine, at the same time you keep the cool on the board.
These women do not have an age, a nationality, a generation. They have a behaviour, a momentum, their hearts on the mouth and powerful words in their heartss. The alpha female girls are here. And they came to stay.
Stay tunned.
