I am a journalist. I am a derby girl. I am both of these things simultaneously. All of the time. By day, by night, at that crepuscular hour that’s neither quite day or night … yep, still a journalist and derby girl. I know, I know, I am blowing your mind here! How could one girl, one woman, embody such complex characteristics as those that comprise a professional journalist AND a roller derby player all at once?! Can you picture me barely restraining myself from hipchecking all my coworkers at an editorial meeting? Calling off the jam so I can go scribble something in my notebook? It’s so confusing! Does. Not. Compute.
If you encountered roller derby through the many hundreds of mainstream media articles that have been written about the modern iteration of the sport in the past decade, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Here is the same sad, tired, old lede (lede = journalism argot for “opening sentence of a story”) in an article about Wasatch Roller Derby published just this month in the Salt Lake Tribune:
“By day, Teryn Mendenhall is a dental hygienist and photography student at the University of Utah. By night, she is Skatey Gaga, captain of the Midnight Terror roller-derby team.”
“We are who we are 100 percent of the time…. I might have a fake name in roller derby, but Bonnie Thunders and Nicole Williams are the same person. Bonnie Thunders is my nickname; it’s not a different person, it’s not an alter ego.”
Amen. We derby girls do not jump into a phone booth after work and emerge wearing Riedells and fishnets, ready to kick ass at practice. Many of the qualities that make us successful in our professional and personal lives are those that make us awesome derby players. And many of the skills we learn and cultivate among our teammates both on and off the track are ones that bolster the other parts of our lives. We are complex, dynamic creatures! We are women. We are human beings. All of the time.
Maybe I should be gratified that journalists want so badly to describe us in the language of superheroes, but it offends me as both a journalist and a derby player. At the phenomenon’s most harmless, I think it’s lazy journalism. At its most nefarious, I think it’s sexist. I suspect that sometimes the writers who resort to these narrative cliches have trouble coming to terms with the idea that women could embody in their everyday lives the characteristics associated with roller derby — aggressiveness, fearlessness, confidence, boldness, brashness, competitiveness, derring-do, a hunger for physical domination. So they perpetuate the idea that these qualities are one side of a coin, things we put on like our helmets and knee pads and stuff back in our gear bags after practice.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it, although I think these questions are worth asking. Maybe I should cut those poor feature writers and general assignment reporters with little to no knowledge of the sport a little slack and acknowledge that derby names are a bit of a red herring if you don’t know the culture — they do suggest alter egos to the uninitiated. But Bonnie’s right when she describes them as nicknames. Vivi is merely a name that some of my friends call me, like those who’ve known me since I was a pup might just as easily call me Emmy Lou.
These days, fortunately, there are many knowledgeable writers out there who get past the cliches and put out great, original content on derby regularly. Occasionally even the MSM outlets hit a perfect note. I shouldn’t get my hackles up about a few bad ledes, right? Except I really like good writing. And roller derby. And reading these terrible ledes over and over again makes me want to hipcheck someone.
I certainly hope you don’t lump me into this category!
Absolutely not, Peyton! I loved the article you wrote for The AV Club earlier this year, and not just because I was in it ;-).
I think this is exactly why I had such a hard time choosing a name. I’m me, all the time! Also, I think in the push to get the world to realize that roller derby is a legit sport, more and more skaters and teams are pushing to use legal names. We have one on our team who uses her legal name. I like the alternate names, I guess almost as an homage to the beginning of the sport, but I do understand the push for the legal name usage as well. Guess we’ll see how it develops!
I enjoy the skater names. I think it shows we don’t take ourselves too seriously, even though we obviously take the sport seriously. I actually probably have a whole other post in my head about the discussion on this topic of legitimacy.
I’m also a journo-skater. I sympathize with your argument, totally. I also can see how an outsider would first see the glitz/glam and shove that in his/her lede instead. It’s catchy.
Maybe in our own leagues’ PR committees we should think about other storylines a journo could follow, like time and dedication to the sport or how the sport changed one skater’s life, etc when a non-skating journo wanders into our rinks.
Hey, thanks for reading, Hard Dash! Always glad to “meet” other writer-skaters.
I’m a journalist who spent four years as a derby ref. (I’m out of it for now with other priorities but still love the sport.) I have a tough time watching various regional media outlets beat that “by day/by night” bit to death (along with comments about torn fishnets and half a dozen other cliches).
But after venting my frustrations on Facebook about a couple of different stories now (one on broadcast TV, another in a blog that included numerous photos of skaters only from the waist down), I’ve tried to restrain myself on Facebook and instead be happy that these leagues are getting positive publicity. The skaters certainly seem happy that they’re on TV, so I’m trying not to focus on what I see as relentless hackery.
A few years ago I wrote a column about my boot camp experience as part of the Derby City Rollergirls. I don’t believe I used that tired old “by day/by night” phrase once, but then, I was a skater, so…
I initially wrote a much longer response to this post, but it all boils down to this: I do not feel like my derby sisters *necessarily* feel like they are who they are 24/7. Not universally. And that’s too bad, because there’s a lot of inspiration and strength to be drawn from women such as yourself and Bonnie Thunders and so many others who do have that going for them.
Journos are going to pick up on that disparity.
I think you make some great points, Red. I definitely don’t want to suggest that everyone’s experience in derby is the same. I think some people are definitely attracted to derby because it allows them space to be something different than who they are in “real” life. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to explore or even embrace that. Even so, I find the by day/by night portrayals simplistic, as well as lazy. Not to say that I’ve never been guilty of penning a cliched turn of phrase or using a metaphor that needs to be put out to pasture…. But I like your points. I’ve seen the by day/by night lede used in many smaller city papers, which are covering for the first time the new league in town — perhaps a less experienced journalist interviewing brand new derby girls creates the perfect storm. Thanks for reading!