Although rid of its scripted theatrics, roller derby retained some of the faux drama with skaters wearing exotic and playful outfits and taking on “derby names.” “I’m Foxy Bruiser,” said 21-year-old hair stylist and full-time mom Jade Deanne Ebert. “I put a lot of thought into my name; it took me a couple of weeks. I liked Rocky Bruiser, then Punky Bruiser, then it finally came to me. Foxy, because I’m a blonde, and Bruiser, ’cause we get out there and play hard.”
“It’s like creating an alternative personality,” observed Easley, 30, an H&R Block office manager. “You don’t want to be just who you are day to day. You’re like, ‘I want to be somebody cool.’ You try to be creative, come up with something from your life. So I am Pi Tality. I liked Faye Tality, but that just wasn’t me. So I thought, I do taxes, I am into math … OK, pi, Pi Tality.”
Easley said there is even an international online roster of derby names. “It’s disrespectful to have the same name as somebody else. It’s kind of a derby code,” she said.
Hang around roller derby long enough and you will hear the term “empowerment” bantered about.
“Roller derby is very empowering,” said Moore. “It allows women to work together, not only individually on their own skating style, but as a team. The things they go through together in developing strategies, it fosters sisterhood.”
An expert on women’s empowerment agrees.
“Physical, competitive sports are one avenue – though not the only avenue – for women’s empowerment, because there’s no question that participation in these kinds of sports has tremendous, positive impact on self-esteem,” said Naarah Patton, the gender violence prevention educator at the UIS Women’s Center in Springfield and a former roller derby skater.
“I first noticed when in graduate school and skating with the Southern Illinois Roller Girls, women in roller derby become more empowered and self-confident the longer they skate,” she said.
“In the initial practice sessions, I noted a lot of women talking about body image. For instance, I overheard someone saying that her thighs looked ‘too fat’ when she wore hot pants. As time went on, though, all the skaters stopped worrying about how their bodies looked, and started being really proud of what they realized their bodies could do.