Roller Derby in the Media

And why shouldn’t the girls have fun skating derby? Everyone else has fun with it!

Ever since its resurging popularity in the 1960’s and 70’s, roller derby has been the subject or setting in various forms of media.

• In 1972, Raquel Welch starred in the feature film Kansas City Bomber. The dramatic quality is debatable, but the skaters’ low-cut skin-tight uniforms coupled with the pulling and grabbing of women on wheels certainly caught the viewers’ attention. Does anyone even remember that Jody Foster was in that one too?
• In 2005, A&E helped to spark a new popularity with its documentary, “Rollergirls,” tracking the revival of roller derby in Austin TX.
• Paramount Pictures and MTV Films are currently planning a comedy film (as yet untitled) about women's roller derby.
• But my favorite is a song called “Roller Derby Queen” – music and lyrics by Jim Croce, included in his 1974 album of greatest hits, Photographs and Memories. I love it!

Roller Derby Queen
By Jim Croce

Gonna tell you a story that you won’t believe

But I fell in love last friday evenin’

With a girl I saw on a bar room t.v. screen

Well I was just gettin’ ready to get my hat

When she caught my eye and I put it back

And I ordered myself a couple o’ more shots and beers

The night that I fell in love with a roller derby queen

Round and round, oh round and round

The meanest hunk o’ woman

That anybody ever seen

Down in the arena

She was five foot six and two fifteen

A bleached-blonde mama

With a streak of mean

She knew how to knuckle

And she knew how to scuffle and fight

And the roller derby program said

That she was built like a ’fridgerator with a head

Her fans call her Tuffy

But all her buddies called her Spike

You know that I fell in love with a roller derby queen

Round and round, oh round and round

The meanest hunk o’ woman

That anybody ever seen

Down in the arena

Round and round, go round and round

Round and round, go round and round

Round and round

Well I could not help it

But to fall in love

With this heavy-duty woman

I been speakin’ of

Things looked kind of bad

Until the day she skated into my life

Well she might be nasty

She might be fat

But I never met a person

Who would tell her that

She’s my big blonde bomber

My heavy handed hackensack mama

You know that I fell in love with a roller derby queen

Round and round, oh round and round

The meanest hunk o’ woman

That anybody ever seen

Down in the arena

Round and round, go round and round

Round and round, go round and round

Round and round

East Coast Derby Extravaganza

Photo by Kat Deem

New derby skaters, and new teams in a league, are both referred to as “fresh meat.” Pittsburgh has four such roller derby teams –

The Wrecking Dolls, the Hot Metal Hellions, the Bitch Doctors and the Slumber Party Slashers.

After recruiting, organizing and practicing for more than nine months, the fledgling Steel City Derby Demons League hosted its first exhibition on January 27 at Harmarville’s BladeRunners rink. My daughter’s team, the Jersey City Bridge & Pummel Girls, has practiced even longer but has yet to skate in an official bout.

I wanted to watch these local teams skate. Then I could experience this phenomenon called derby culture. I wanted to see for myself the degree of skill, camp, and risk that goes into an event. And I could at least imagine my Lady Vengeance out there among the pack.

A good front-end publicity campaign got the word out. (Or is the public really so hungry for roller derby entertainment?) In January local media – including Pittsburgh’s City Paper, the Post Gazette’s Weekend Magazine and the Valley News Dispatch – all ran feature stories on the new league and its scheduled exhibition.

Even so, when I tried to buy tickets online I was surprised to learn that the event was sold out.

SOLD OUT!

Not ready to push and shove my ticketless way into BladeRunners, even in roller derby spirit, I decided to wait until Steel City League’s next scheduled event on March 17.

Meanwhile, the Philly Roller Girls League is hosting an East Coast Extravaganza at 2 rinks in Philadelphia’s Sportsplex next month.

“Two Full Days of Hard Hitting Derby Action!” promises the promo. “Twenty+ Leagues from East of the Mississippi!”

And here’s the kicker (for me, at least) – one of the scheduled fresh meat teams is the Jersey City Bridge and Pummel Girls.

The derby debut of Lady Vengeance will take place in Philly next month.

And Mama Vengeance plans to be in the stands. Look out Philly, here come the FORCES OF VENGEANCE!

Skater Identities - What's in a Name?

Derby Portrait by Kat Deem

Even from a young age, we all enjoy taking on an occasional alter-persona. Pull out the Monopoly board and you’ll hear, “I want to be the racecar … the silver thimble … the top hat!” Nobody ever wants to be the old shoe.

It’s the same for the lead in a school play or the faceless blogger. Whether we’re getting dressed for a costume party or the prom, whether we are sitting among strangers at a bar or out driving with the top down, it’s fun to slip out of our own skins to become somebody else for a little while.

In roller derby, each new skater has the opportunity to take on a new name and accompanying persona. What an outlet for self-expression!

In fact, the names are highly contested. All the names of derby skaters, past and present, are recorded in a master roster. Officially registered names are protected against newcomers choosing to skate under the same or similar ones. Nearly 7,000 names are recorded in this growing national registry.

Once registered and approved, the skater’s name is her copyright and trademark, and no one else can own it.

Often her new persona is an animated extension of her off-rink personality. The names reflect the tongue-in-cheek image of today’s roller derby. They are usually puns or plays on words, often with references to celebrities, movie stars or the seductive pin-up girls of a previous generation. Other popular choices are empowering names to play this empowering sport.

My own sweet film-loving Lady Vengeance chose her name from the title character of an obscure Korean revenge film by director Chan Wook Park – Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.

A few clever examples of derby names –

Vamp
Rita Slayworth … Betty Rage … Rolletta Lynn … Betty D Bombshell … Trophy Wife … Tallulah Breakhead … Faye Breakaway … Raquel Squelch … Classy Chasis ...

Camp
Cheap Skate … Surly Temple … Viagra Falls … Tequila Mockingbird … Poison I.V. … Ivana Killeau … Foxy Contin

Tough as Nails
Zilla D Killa … Yanita Beating … Donna Matrix … Baby Ruthless … Roxy Balboa … Smack N Decker … Whiskey Dixie … Whipher Snapher … Tornado Allie … Octopushy … Slappa Ho

Speed
Suzy Hotrod … Greta Turbo … Speed Razor … Shutter Speed … Mila Minute …

Royalty
Trauma Queen … Queen of Hurts …Queen Chaos …Princess Die …Princess of Wails … Lady MacDeath …

Even (predominantly male) referees have their rink names –
Bust’er Cheatin … B.O. Hazard … Penalty Pimp …

And why not? It’s fun! Admit it – aren’t you already thinking up a few names of your own by now?

The roller derby women are an imaginative group. Pull out the game of Clue, and I’ll bet they all want to be Miss Scarlett

…in the rink

…with the brass knuckles.

What IS Roller Derby Anyway?

Like many sports, Roller Derby has evolved over time …

• 1930’s – Roller derby began as a form of contest entertainment, an energetic alternative to the dull dance marathon
• 1950’s – Professional touring leagues of skating men and women competed before stadium crowds around the U.S.
• 1960’s – Televised bouts of female skaters gained popularity, but transformed the sport into scripted bawdy entertainment, the female equivalent of studio wrestling
• 1970’s – Public interest declined as derby ceased to be “real”
• 2005 – Rollergirls, A&E’s reality TV show, featured a women’s roller derby league in Austin, Texas, daring to be taken seriously

Today roller derby is a fast-growing sport. Two teams comprised of female roller skaters put on helmets and pads, skate around an oval track (flat or banked) and compete for points in a series of jams, constrained only by the time limits of two 30-minute periods.

Currently, roller derby has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in both active participation and public spectatorship. New leagues continue to emerge across the country.

To understand this sport

• with room for women of all shapes, ages and sizes
• where the players don’t fit the traditional concept of athlete
• where “booty-blocking” is a tactical term, and
• which perpetuates an ironic clash of female aggression, sisterhood and campy humor

… it helps to first understand the game.

Okay, let’s talk technical for a minute.

Two teams, five skaters each: 4 blockers and 1 jammer.

Blocker
At the first whistle, the eight blockers start to skate counter-clockwise in a pack. Among these is each team’s special blocker, called a pivot, who sets the pace. The pivot is identified by the stripe on her helmet.

The blockers have two jobs – block the opposing jammer, and clear a path for their own jammer. Blockers can assist their jammer by “whipping” her ahead in the pack.

Jammer
A second whistle launches the two competing jammers, who chase the pack. The first jammer to legally make it through the pack is now the lead jammer. Only she has the right to call off the jam at any time, a strategic move. You can tell the jammer – she’s the one with the star on her helmet (kind of like Dr. Suess’ Sneetches).

Scoring
The jammers are the point-scorers. Scoring begins only after the jammers complete their first lap through the pack, lap around and enter the pack for the second time. One point is scored for each opposing blocker passed by the inbound jammer. Jammers may lap the pack as many times as possible until the jam is over, its conclusion signaled either by the lead jammer or after two minutes. The team with the most points wins.

Rules, Refs and Penalties
Legal blocks use body, torso, shoulders and rear end. Illegal blocks include tripping, grabbing and pushing. A blocker may chase after a breakaway jammer, but it is illegal to block or assist when more than 20 feet from the pack. Penalties are charged for illegal blocking, fighting or exhibiting unsportsmanlike conduct.

Skating referees control the game by tracking the time and enforcing the rules.

Added Intensity

• Power play (major offenders must sit out for one minute of play)
• Overtime (tie-breaker decided with a full-length 2-minute jam)
• Role exchange (a jammer may strategically trade roles with her pivot by exchanging helmet covers during the jam)
• Post-jam challenge (a penalty) may result in more points being scored

And these ladies can skate! So what if a blocker weighs 200 pounds! She’s jostling for position within a pack of women on wheels, plowing at high speed around a track.

And so what if the jammer weighs 90 pounds! She’s weaving and bobbing, shooting through sudden holes in this rolling mass so that she can lap around to do it again.

So now we are ready to roll …