Roflcopter
Member
Whoo-boy, this is destined to garner no more than five response before it drifts off the front page, I can tell! I did a search on Roller Derby and it's hardly ever come up here! I was thinking if I wanted to talk about it there surely would be a big old thread worthy of necro, but no. The sport is commonly linked to size acceptance and yet ... nothing. What gives?
I understand not everyone likes sports, but I think for Roller Derby's sake you should give competitive sports one more shot. I'll explain why, but let me tell you how I got involved first.
Anyway, last summer I met a woman involved in the Tucson Roller Derby and therefore had an excuse to finally check out this crazy grass roots thing I done heard about around Arizona. My girlfriend and I went to a bout and we were quickly hooked. Not immediately hooked because even if somebody explains the rules to you ahead of time you still spend the first 30 minutes or so trying to make competetive sense of these women skating endlessly in a circle. But once we got it, we loved it.
Now I suspect that a lot of people here have had negative experiences with the vague milieu of "sports." First off, for the obese among us, the paradigm has been used to leverage an extra heaping of shame upon you. If your dad was the sort to yell "Wooooooo!" at strangers playing football, your impression of the endeavor is likely to be tainted. I think the dance-on-your-grave types give the rest of us - "us" being people who have a healthy respect for the thrills of competition - a very bad name.
As someone who loves sports, but has learned to be somewhat picky about what he chooses to enjoy and what parts of the culture he partakes in, I have to say that Roller Derby is great great fun. Before attending the Tucson Roller Derby I had never really watched amatuer sports. As someone who likes sports but tires of the mainstream diva-worshipping that passes as sports fandom, an amatuer sport is a breath of fresh air. You get the thrill of competition without any of the bad attitudes.
I like it firstly because I genuinely like the sport, however the size acceptance and general pro-woman attitudes present in the game provide wonderful gravy and I'm surprised there isn't more interest expressed here.
A final note for any feminists reading this: Once I got into this sport I found myself really wanting to participate. It all looked so fun I wanted to play too! But I can't, I told myself. Because I'm not a woman. I frustrated myself with this fact for a few minutes before a notion hit me right in the gut. Ouch, I thought. This is what every woman feels everytime she looks at any other sport. And for a moment, a man expressed empathy.
I understand not everyone likes sports, but I think for Roller Derby's sake you should give competitive sports one more shot. I'll explain why, but let me tell you how I got involved first.
Anyway, last summer I met a woman involved in the Tucson Roller Derby and therefore had an excuse to finally check out this crazy grass roots thing I done heard about around Arizona. My girlfriend and I went to a bout and we were quickly hooked. Not immediately hooked because even if somebody explains the rules to you ahead of time you still spend the first 30 minutes or so trying to make competetive sense of these women skating endlessly in a circle. But once we got it, we loved it.
Now I suspect that a lot of people here have had negative experiences with the vague milieu of "sports." First off, for the obese among us, the paradigm has been used to leverage an extra heaping of shame upon you. If your dad was the sort to yell "Wooooooo!" at strangers playing football, your impression of the endeavor is likely to be tainted. I think the dance-on-your-grave types give the rest of us - "us" being people who have a healthy respect for the thrills of competition - a very bad name.
As someone who loves sports, but has learned to be somewhat picky about what he chooses to enjoy and what parts of the culture he partakes in, I have to say that Roller Derby is great great fun. Before attending the Tucson Roller Derby I had never really watched amatuer sports. As someone who likes sports but tires of the mainstream diva-worshipping that passes as sports fandom, an amatuer sport is a breath of fresh air. You get the thrill of competition without any of the bad attitudes.
I like it firstly because I genuinely like the sport, however the size acceptance and general pro-woman attitudes present in the game provide wonderful gravy and I'm surprised there isn't more interest expressed here.
A final note for any feminists reading this: Once I got into this sport I found myself really wanting to participate. It all looked so fun I wanted to play too! But I can't, I told myself. Because I'm not a woman. I frustrated myself with this fact for a few minutes before a notion hit me right in the gut. Ouch, I thought. This is what every woman feels everytime she looks at any other sport. And for a moment, a man expressed empathy.
