The Real vs the Symbolic
According to Lacan, the French psychologist, the words we use are part of a symbolic order of reality. When a child is born, they are real. They are a raw part of nature that has no interpretation. Their hunger, their bodily needs, their fears are a part of a raw, uninterpreted nature. And when their parents interpret their crying as hunger or need for closeness, the interpretation according to Lacan actually shapes what the baby believes that their needs are. So if all their crying is always met with food, then they will in theory believe that all their needs were actually hunger. this stage where the child starts to interpret their own needs by absorbing how the world interprets them and listening to the social, cultural traditions that are around them, this is how they absorb the symbolic order (with some exceptions in autistic children).
The symbolic order represents a symbol, like a word, like milk. The word milk is a symbol because it doesn’t have a real existence on its own. It represents something else that is real, maybe a carton of milk or a glass of milk, that in real life has no one abstract form. But through the symbol of the word milk, we now associate the milk that’s in the glass the same as the milk that’s in a cow’s udder, with the same milk that’s in a woman’s breast, with the same milk that’s in the fridge. So the symbol is used to translate between different physical realities or objects in reality.
In the example with the milk, the symbolic order is something very neutral, but Lacan argues that the symbolic order is rarely something neutral, it is something opinionated, that has a motive, and is hierarchical, violent, enforces norms. And each symbol can imply exclusion: what is included, what is not, what is normal, what is not normal. So for example, labels like good woman, or a man, or success, or family, or health, these are all ways that can force interpretation onto the individual’s desires and wants and needs and motivations. That might not be that individual’s true expression. In the same way that if a baby cries because it is physically uncomfortable but is given milk, then that is not an accurate interpretation.
Counterculture has an interesting relationship with the symbolic order versus the real. Human nature is this unordered, uninterpreted, raw nature of human existence, and the ‘real’ according to Lacan is that which resists the symbolic order, the symbolic order is the one we inherit from the society and the rules and the traditions around us. If you look at what a lot of counterculture movements do, it’s a rebellion against the symbolic order, a desire to return to something that is real. So you can take rapping or skateboarding as examples. I think these kind of work in opposite directions because with rapping, there’s an over-articulation of words, concepts, ideas that through ingenuity and rhythm and better articulation and wit, it actually tries to redefine the existing symbolic order with a new, better language. It creates new phrases and words that’s used in pop culture. And so by over-creating the symbolic order, it overtakes the existing symbolic order. Whereas with something like skateboarding, you’re resisting the symbolic order altogether. You’re resisting rules. Skateboarding as a sport is something that isn’t measured on abstract group rules like soccer, but based on the most concrete physical feedback possible. And as a culture, it’s been very notorious about not having rules, not having definition. And that goes beyond just the actual activity. And it permeates the entire culture from the aesthetics to even recently how it reacted to becoming part of the Olympics. And in the way that sponsorship is gained, there is a unspoken rule about authenticity and not selling out. Even with competitions and sponsorship, it resists things that pull the axis towards symbolism, towards definition, towards rankings, towards financial compensation, things that will connect it to the symbolic order of the world.
Comparison of Skateboarding to Surfing
There is skateboarding as a sport, but there is skateboarding as a counterculture, and we want to compare its survival of its counterculture when measured against its closest relative, surfing.
- J. Schwier (2019) in Skateboarding between Subculture and the Olympics explains how skateboarding’s culture has remained self-policing, with “authenticity” determined more by community norms than public perception.
- In comparison, B. Wheaton & B. Beal (2003) argue in “Keeping it Real” that surfing, though once equally rebellious, became more commercialized and mainstream due to early brand integrations (e.g., Quiksilver, Billabong) and a growing dependence on competition-based status.
- One more comparison can be made to snowboarding: H. Thorpe (2022) in Action Sports and the Olympic Games notes snowboarding initially resisted but quickly folded into the Olympic model—leading to a major identity split between freeriders and competitors.
The commercialization level of skateboarding has been late, reluctant, and uneven, whereas with surfing is early and widespread. In terms of Olympic entry reaction, it has been ambiguous, tolerated, and not embraced, whereas for surfing it has been welcomed as a major legitimization. The impact of competitions is seen as extraneous to core skaters, but in surfing it is central to the global surfing community. Definition has been avoided, and codification has been highly avoided in skateboarding, whereas in surfing, clearer ranking systems and scoring has been implemented. In terms of subcultural longevity, it has strong continuity since the 90s, where the distaste for sellout status began, whereas for surfing, there has been significant cultural shifts since the 1960s.
This has all been achieved without any central institution, unlike Surfing’s WSL or Snowboarding’s FIS. It also maintains coherence through nonverbal expression that resists language-based co-optation, aesthetic and style codes that are hard to mass-market or define, and memes and in-jokes and subtle cues that signal authenticity to insiders.
Vangel (2024): Even the media that surrounds skateboarding (films, zines, Instagram clips) is highly resistant to textual reduction—favoring gesture, motion, and vibe.
Case Study: Chris Joslin, Skater of the Year
Consider the case study of Chris Joslin being named the Skater of the Year (SOTY) 2025. As of now, there is no publicly detailed or algorithmic explanation from Thrasher Magazine — and that’s part of the point. The way Thrasher handles its most prestigious title is deliberately informal, deeply rooted in subcultural authenticity, community resonance, and editorial ethos, not competitive rankings or standardized scoring systems.
The decision was likely based on his video skate output and community respect more than competition rankings, as Chris Joslin has released multiple high-impact video parts in 2024-2025 showcasing technical consistency, fearless energy, and a blend of raw power and precision that commands respect in street skating. In skate culture, producing legendary footage matters more than medals. In surf culture, this is a similar community nomination to Bethany Hamilton as a cultural icon, who was attacked by a shark and lost her arm, yet continued to surf. However, when asked who is the greatest surfer of all time, most people would name Kelly Slater because he has 11 world titles in the WSL. Kelly Slater represents the institutional success model, a mastery within a codified symbolic structure, which has parted ways from the authentic status of Bethany Hamilton.
There’s an unspoken street credibility and authenticity that the way to gain respect in that community is to remain unaffected by the symbolic order. And that’s demonstrated in careers that have more longevity because of the support that that behavior receives from the community. And so if you compare it to how surfing entered the Olympics and how the counterculture of surfing changed over time, surfing also started as something that was anti-establishment, that was looked down on. But currently winning competitions do matter a lot. Rankings matter. Global rankings matter. When it entered the Olympics, that mattered a lot for the community. Whereas the way skateboarding entered the Olympics, there was some discomfort and conversation around that. But at the same time it didn’t reject the Olympics completely. Because I think according to the symbolic theory, taking a definite stance against the Olympics also creates a form of definition. And that definition is part of the symbolic order as well. And so by not definitely rejecting the Olympics but also not definitely accepting it, it has succeeded in not allowing that to affect the core philosophy of the culture. the core philosophy of skateboarding as a culture allows it to have the stamina and replenished creativity to survive, exist, despite the symbolic order, despite definition, despite major upheavals in social order in the last thirty years.
Sometimes there’s memes about skateboarders being bad boyfriends or not good at relationships. And I think that joke comes from the fact that a relationship is a social contract that requires a symbolic agreement. And so it’s not that they lack any actual relationship skills, understanding, or compassion, it’s that they would probably, out of pure habit, as much as possible, skaters try to avoid symbolic definitions of any sort. (To be fair to skaters there are not many partners that can fully stomach and support the resistance to social rules, it is a minority by definition).
Conclusion
Lacan doesn’t propose for us to leave the symbolic order because that is impossible. It just proposes that we, in order to have a more fulfilling authentic life, we don’t confuse ourselves with the symbolic order. And I think skateboarding is an excellent example of that. Because from the outside, it’s very confusing what the goals of skateboarding culture is. What is its direction? What is its orientation? What are its goals or its values? It’s very difficult for anyone from outside the culture to actually see what’s going on inside. It can be quite opaque and self-protective. It can be confusingly open and yet closed. But I think what it is, essentially, is a statement of surviving the symbolic order without getting confused by it.
Skateboarding has remained surprisingly coherent as a culture despite worldwide organization or a main articulated ideology Its resilience is invaluable to our society at large as we transform endlessly through different transitions, between symbolic orders, and try to root out and untangle errors in our traditions and rules that are not working for us in our search to find better interpretations of who we are. The existence of skate sub communities is an important component of the larger local communities to which they belong, that which grounds us and gives us continuity and an anchor point for which among a constellation of different efforts that we make to anchor ourselves, to find better, more accurate mirrors of our shifting identities.
SUBLIME COURAGE 
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