EdBloG

Summer 2011, first encounter with Women’s Roller Derby. I was immediately attracted by the visual impact and the mix of genres. Here, made-up girls skate on quads, wear fishnet stockings and knee pads and boast Tarantino-esque names: Licence To Wheel, PokaOnTrash, Pixels Death, Catmikaze, Patty Bull’R.

Roller Derby is a breeding ground for fantasy. Each girl inhibits a character that triggers a new mental space within her. A kind of imaginary space where the strength of the ego makes the falls less painful and promotes self-assertion.

In Roller Derby, you fall seven times and you get back up eight times.
You sustain bruises, you roll your shoulders, you clear a path for
yourself and try to stand out from the group. You’re left behind while the others carry on. All that’s left is to do is to swallow your pride and rise to your feet.

There is something very actual in Roller Derby. A pure product of pop culture which multiplies references to American movies, rock music and urban culture It attracts inquiring, original minds and speaks for a generation that wants it all: a virile womanhood, a vintage modernity, individuality within a group, a disciplined freedom.

Roller Derby is, in its current version, a hybrid creation that reflects the times we live in. And yet these girls’ gestures, their gaze and the posture of their bodies sometimes remind me of the Amazons straight out of mythology.