RESEARCH PAPER

An Ethnographic Examination of Roller Derby Mothers

Abstract

This thesis examines the reason why a mother would challenge traditional gendered norms and participate in roller derby. This study further attempts to understand the relationship between mother and offspring as it relates to a mothers participation in the full contact sport of roller derby. This thesis examines the research questions:(1) why do mothers participate in a full contact, often times dangerous sport? And (2), do they gain a sense of empowerment that translates into providing an example of being a positive role model to their children? Ethnographic research methods, both participant observation and in-depth interviews, were used in order to answer the research questions previously stated. The participants for this study were both mothers and “roller-derby girls”. They both play for a semi-professional teams in Santa Cruz, Ca. This thesis found that mothers participated in roller derby for at least one of the following reasons: enjoyment, socialization (ability to meet new people and make new friends), physical and mental health, being part of a community, and having an overall sense of wellbeing. The findings of this report also showed that, although the participants sensed that their children wanted them to be careful, and worried about the possibility of injury, they felt a sense of pride, in that they saw a different and fun side of their mothers in that they were willing to try new things and were thus considered brave.

An Ethnographic Examination of Roller Derby Mothers

INTRODUCTION

This study of women skaters who participate or have participated as a player in the all female full contact sport of roller derby will focus on a sociohistorical analysis of the sport of roller skating and roller derby spanning from the nineteenth century to the modern incarnation of the sport. This paper will conclude by addressing data obtained through 30 semi-structured interviews with current roller derby skaters and will explore the lingering stereotypes that continue to plague the sport today. The purpose of this ethnographic study is to explore challenges and issues of identity, such as questions regarding the femininity of women who engage in full contact competitive athletics. The nature of the research question is to discover what changes in identity occur for women who participate in physically aggressive sports such as roller derby. The overall analytical objective of describing variation and explaining relationships by means of individual accounts will help explain group norms and explore the process of identity changes, if any, that the acquisition of overtly aggressive strategies through the learning and engaging in contact athletics, specifically roller derby, leads to in women.

From the early 1880s when Micajah C. Henley of Richmond, Indiana established the first roller skate factory in his barn to the current female owned and operated full contact roller derby leagues of today, roller skating has provided for American women an activity that challenges females to use their bodies instrumentally rather than in response to restrictive standards of femininity (“Roller Skating Industry,” ...