Roller Girls
My little city has a Roller Derby Team team. Written up recently in Velvet Park women’s roller derby is back with a vengeance. I met members of our team, The London Thrashers, at the Velodrome where they practise after hours (no, not on the banked track, that would be lunacy, but rather on the concrete infield.) The 20-something year old women are a range of shapes and sizes, they sort of look like Suicide Girls, but tougher, less-waif and stray like
. They have muscles along with their tattoes and torn fishnets. Fun fun. I’d love to watch sometime. I admire very much their physicality and the "tough broad" attitude, kind of combination of sex, sleaze, and sport. I’m often the only woman riding the track in a group of a dozen or so guys and so I sometimes stop and chat with the roller derby set. I told them I’d love to come watch but they tell me they need another six women (actually they said "girls" but I still haven’t quite gotten used to that as a word referring to adult females over the age of 18) before they can actually compete against another team. They asked me to join. I laughed and said ‘too scary." Then they laughed as I’d just been riding my track bike round at speeds over 40 km/her on a track banked in parts at 50 degrees. Scary is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. And for me it’s the physical aggression of roller derby which makes it a sport I can appreciate but in which I don’t want to take part.
April 6th, 2007 at 9:54 am
i was enthralled to learn my hairdresser (yay, a woman who knows what to do with my hair without charging a fortune!) is not only a roller derby chick but is also a member of coolband cougar party. she told me they would be starting competition, I think she said in may, and put me on her email announcementlist for it…..should I let you know when the bouts begin?
September 18th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
I’m turning 40 in less than a month and I’m joining the closest roller derby league to me. If you’re afraid of it, then by all means don’t do it - but it is not just a sport for 20-somethings.
That said, when a 20-something says what sounds to you like “girl” she’s really saying “grrrl” if she’s talking about a derby girl, and that’s about like saying women == womyn.
Personally I’m pumped about the most recent resurgence of roller derby. I’ve needed a competitive, year-round, team exercise outlet. Years ago I joined my company’s basketball league (because they didn’t specifically say “men’s basketball league” and I was often picked in the first half even though I was the only grrl and quite short, I was damned aggressive and no man would touch me) but I don’t have that any more.
Do support your local league in any way you can. Its an unparalleled outlet for amateur womens sports!!
PS: at nearly 40, I will not be the oldest derby player on my league.