posted by Emily
Roller derby is alive and well. Apparently.
When I was in seventh grade, there was a rumor going around that my math teacher did roller derby on the weekends. Her nickname was Gorilla, and we believed it because she was just mean enough. That was in 1989. We thought: How messed up. Roller derby is dead.
Yet in 2006, roller derby appears to have been reborn, if it ever really went away. Leagues are popping up from Boston to Detroit to Tuscon, and these chicks are a scary lot. I'm not sure what would attract a gal to one of these teams, other than some deep-seated exhibitionism in the pain department. Or is it all fake, like on WWF Smackdown?
Atlanta has a league called the Rollergirls. They seem like quite something, down to their cute outfits and frightening personas. Notorius R.I.P of the Sake Tuyas is the fictional lovechild of Old Dirty Bastard & Olivia Newton John. Venus Flytramp of the Denim Demons claims to specialize in "Texas titty-twisters, trash-talkin', and trouble-makin'." (Right. Um, sign me up.)
It has a perverse lure, this new generation of knock-down drag-out on wheels. I picture audiences made up half of raging feminists in shit-kicker boots and half of drooling perverts there just to witness the, well, the grasping. It's a phenomenon maybe something like if a couple of clown cars collided. You have to stop and look. It's more than a little disturbing. But more than a little entertaining.
