Twenty-six years ago, I gave birth to Lady Vengeance.
I did not realize this at the time, of course. Even the doctor confirmed only a healthy baby girl weighing in at 7 pounds, 5 ounces. We parents gave our newborn the biblical name of Sarah. As precious and extraordinary as our daughter was to us, hindsight reveals her very normal and unremarkable childhood development.
Oh, there were some clues:
- the intentionally mismatched socks at ten
- the self-pierced tongue in high school
- in college the short spiked hair dyed the color of Bazooka bubblegum
- the grad school decision to study film in (where else?) the city that never sleeps
But from behind this vibrantly perplexing exterior shined an intelligent, fun-loving, spiritual, sensitive and compassionate young lady.
I guess I wasn’t all that surprised when Sarah called to say that she had signed up for a women’s roller derby league. It seemed healthier than her relationship with the graffiti artist! To try out, she certified that she has health insurance. Yikes! She invested in pads and skating equipment. She learned how to fall. She learned more sophisticated maneuvers, and then again how to fall. She practiced after a full day's work, outdoors and indoors, finally returning home at midnight. After many practices Sarah, like all the others, had to pass a skills test. But after all of this, my daughter is now officially a Jersey City Bridge & Pummel Girl in the Garden State Rollergirls League of the Womens Flat Track Derby Association.
And they all know her as Lady Vengeance.
So it is with curiosity and a desire for continued involvement in my distant daughter’s interests that I dedicate my blog to the exploration of roller derby. I want to understand this sport with its tough and independent feminine image, and its contradicting exploitative attire. I want to learn the league structure and the rules of the game: the scoring, the positions, the contest. What makes a good skater? I want a glimpse into the type of girl eager to deck an opponent one night, then in sisterly solidarity spearhead a food drive or a cancer walk. And where do all those paying fans come from?
Join me for a skate into derby culture. I write with a parental perspective. How could I do otherwise? After all, I am Mama Vengeance.
5 comments:
I must admit, I know absolutely nothing about Roller Derby, I don't think many people do. So if you're really going to write on that, it may be informative and interesting.
Exactly what is roller derby?
Wow, this sounds dangerously like my own interpretable youth. Mum...is that you? ;)
I know nothing of roller derby either -- only roller-skating, which was one of the many independent ventures that my own mother implicitly encouraged me to continue with...but had we had handles like "Lady Vengeance," things may have turned out much differently.
Although I expect to learn a lot from you about this fun, new experience, here's an article in The Pittsburgh City Paper that took front page prominence a while ago.
I'm very excited to read your blog as it develops more. I am somewhat familiar with roller derby. Most of my knowledge comes from the A&E television series Roller Girls. I highly recommend watching it. Then you would get a more visual and personal interpretation of what your daughter does. Some of the women on there are pretty hardcore. Which sounds exaclty like your daughter.
I would NEVER call your daugher "hard core!"
Adventuresome - definitely!
We should have known it would come to this when the piercings began!
And hey, didn't Racquel Welch star in a roller derby movie? Maybe that's where the "film study" lady got the idea!
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