Here are photographs of the joys of roller derby as I experienced them (as an observer, alas) for the first time in my life last week: speed, strength, athletic skill, camaraderie, and funny derby names. And – given the theme of this week – I’ll ask you to imagine a lot of commingling sounds, from the noises of the players to the gasps of the spectators, the whistles and commands of the many referees and the relentless techno music firing them all on. Imagine the sounds of the roller blades themselves, the sounds of rapid breathing, of thudding into bodies, the occasional muted yelp over some turned ankle and empty water bottles thrown into the trashcan. There was laughter, grunting, screaming. A cacophony.
Even though it was about 100 degrees in the old hangar where the Rose City Rollers practice, and the women were not in the eye-catching costumes and makeup you see during real competitions, I had a blast. I also had an interesting psychological experience, of being the outsider rather than the norm, during the practice session that I was allowed to photograph as part of a documentary film team. These young women were a tightly knit group, all quite comfortable with the aggression and physicality this contact sport requires, all of them tattooed in interesting ways,
and quite creative in their choices of pseudonyms, or derby names – apparently a hallmark of the sport just as the campy elements when you rise up into the more famous leagues. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1755305
Check out some of them…. https://www.devaskation.com/Roller-Derby-Name-of-the-Year
The women were also unafraid of pain which surely occurs when you bang full body into someone else, crash to the floor, twist your ankles when you try to jump over those already down and so on. I, on the other hand, go to great length to avoid sports and/or physical exertion, reserve pain for the required doctor’s visit, and would not dream of getting a tattoo, my scars suffice. That said, I did feel a certain attraction to the unabashed vigor with which women slammed into each other, blocked the opposing team and raced away triumphantly.
The value of sports as a means of sublimating aggressive urges is nowhere clearer than in contact sports. To see women or trans people engage in what used to be more males domains is thought-provoking.
On the one hand, women have always been restrained by society in the expression of aggression, verbal aggression perhaps being the exception. Even there, though, you’d be quickly labeled a harpy or worse, assigned a shrillness that devalues. Ask Elizabeth Warren if you don’t trust me. So it counts for something if gender differences are erased.
On the other hand I think wo/mankind in general should aspire to decrease physical violence, and not make it into an amusing spectacle or use it as training grounds for times when the state requires cannon fodder. (The rules, by the way, are pretty strict here, no foot, hand, head or below the waist contact – just body against body push from front or side.) So I’m not sure on what side I come down.
The link below explains the game and has some good sections on the sounds that surround you. Not recommended if you are trying to subdue an oncoming migraine……
