After Atalanta

In that sometimes coincidental way that things converge in one's life, yesterday morning on NPR there was a story on roller derby. Learned a little more history like that it was originally a sport created for men. And then during the depression the man credited with creating the sport thought it would draw more people if he used women and they were wearing sexy outfits. Ta-da!The sport died out a bit, had a resurgence in the 70s, waned again and now is back! Read/listen all about it at NPR .

Not too long ago, one of the Title IX bloggers (those women just rock, don't they?), wrote about the issue of double headers in intercollegiate sports. Not two games played back-to-back by the same team, but back-to-back games by a women's team and a men's team. This seems to happen most frequently in basketball. The home team hosts both the men's and women's teams from a particular institution in one night. The issue has been that often the women's games are played first making it seem like they are the opening act; the warm-up for the men's game. Title IX is involved because the law requires equity in the scheduling of games and promotion both of which are at issue when scheduling men's games in primetime slots and relegating women to opening act status. Some conferences have dealt with this already by switching the order of games either at some point during the season or every year. What got me thinking about this was roller derby. Not an intercolleg...

Roller derby has hit Britain! The American, largely female-only sport has been exported to Britain and is growing exponentially. Check out this piece in The Guardian about the emergence of the sport overseas. This is very good news for overseers of British women's physical fitness (note the problematic nature of having such overseers however well meaning). Because British women are quite absent in sport and physical activity. Which makes the popularity of roller derby a little curious. Much of the rationale behind the lack of activity is the need to uphold standards of femininity which many women find incompatible with sport participation. But roller derby is one of the most aggressive (an historically male trait) sports out there. But the performance of the sport with the self-styled "kits" (I love British-speak!) that often include skirts and fishnets and makeup might temper the perceived masculinity many women see in sport. Who knows. Also I found out an interesting t...

Sorry for the absence these past two weeks. Little bit of travel and some pending deadlines have made me a little scattered. But the weekend is nearly here and if you are looking for something indoorsy to do (temps here dropped 30 degrees in one day--*sigh*--with rain the forecast) go see Whip It! I went a few weekends ago and really enjoyed it. Pretty light, puts you in a good mood, which I was quite in need of, and it's about roller derby. Like I said, not too deep but very woman-centered. Touches lightly on issues of class and age. Though it does not really interrogate the aggression required of and afforded to female skaters, it's obviously a big part of the movie. Acting was so-so. (I really hope Ellen Page can get out of her Juno-esque stereotype some day--yes, yes, I know there was Smart People.) I have heard next-to-nothing about the movie since it was released, but prior to the wide release there were a lot of articles about women's roller derby. Here are some of t...

I was just talking to a friend the other day about how roller derby is such a hot topic in sport studies because it's a great venue for examining gender roles, subversion, aggression, alternative sport, sexuality, and a host of other things. And of course the forthcoming (I cannot wait!!) Whip It with Juno star Ellen Paige and directed by Drew Barrymore will draw even more critical and popular attention to the sport. Unfortunately, with the recession, roller derby has been experiencing some problems. Most articles about sport and the recession have focused on keeping fans in the stands, but this one is about keeping players in the rink. Roller derby is not a professional sport--the players do not get paid. They have to finance their own gear, travel expenses, and health coverage. And we all know what kind of a state health care is in these days. And even though some players could skate by (pardon the pun) on multiple part-time gigs, if they are without health care, roller derby i...

I was pleased with some recent media coverage. (I know, I know; it happens so infrequently.) USA Today ran some pieces on some non-traditional women's sports a few weeks ago. The first was a feature on one of the leading female motocross riders, 17-year old Ashley Fiolek. Fiolek is heading to the X Games next month where she will participate as one of ten riders in the first women's motocross, which consists of 10 laps around a x-country course set up in the Staples Center in LA. I wasn't too excited about how both the article and Fiolek herself (girls are more hesitant to make an aggressive pass on the track, she said) set up how this is such a masculine sport. But I did like that they mentioned Fiolek's (dis)ability--she's deaf--and how she has had to train to take that into account. They did not posit her as a hero or as someone working against insurmountable odds. One might even be able to argue that her gender was more of an obstacle than her hearing loss. A ...

I went to my first roller derby last night. It was an all-women event, which I know stating it was all women may seem redundant, but the home team last night actually has men's and women's roller derby because they believe you should be able to participate "no matter what kind of plumbing you have." I did not know what to expect really having only acquired snippets of information (mostly in the form of images) of roller derby over the years. The main differences I found (between my hodgepodge collection of memories and the reality) was that this was flat track roller derby, it was not as fast, and there was not as much contact as I expected. This was disappointing. The group is kind of new so part of the lack of action and speed may be skill level and not reflect all roller derby. Most of the time they looked a little shaky and though I know there was strategy involved it seemed more like luck than skill when a team scored a point. What I did learn was that, yes, ther...