Roller derby is not about violence or sex, however we do know what sells to the public and unfortunately it’s sex & violence. Since we tend to have a hard time getting the public and media to respect us, we have to try and grab people’s attention somehow.
As for the feminism thing, do some research and see that men’s roller derby leagues are quickly springing up across the country. Also, men are coaches and referees in the women’s leagues.
I know your opinion is that Mr. Maldonado shows no disrespect for our hard work in putting together our bouts & leagues, but I have to disagree. The entire article comes across disrespectful to the sport of roller derby and since most of us have built our leagues from the ground up, yes, this is disrespectful to our hard work. We have been trying to chase away the reputation roller derby has for being fake and trashy for several years now and this article certainly does not help us do that. Mr. Maldonado misstates facts about the sport and then he refers to roller derby as a “novelty”, a “parody” and a “non-sport”. Anyone involved in roller derby is left with the impression he barely researched this (and Wikipedia does not count as research) and treated the entire assignment like a joke. I persoanlly feel disrespected and from the looks of all the comments, so do a lot of other people.
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krispy writes:
In response to Lindsay’s questions above:
Roller derby is not about violence or sex, however we do know what sells to the public and unfortunately it’s sex & violence. Since we tend to have a hard time getting the public and media to respect us, we have to try and grab people’s attention somehow.
As for the feminism thing, do some research and see that men’s roller derby leagues are quickly springing up across the country. Also, men are coaches and referees in the women’s leagues.
I know your opinion is that Mr. Maldonado shows no disrespect for our hard work in putting together our bouts & leagues, but I have to disagree. The entire article comes across disrespectful to the sport of roller derby and since most of us have built our leagues from the ground up, yes, this is disrespectful to our hard work. We have been trying to chase away the reputation roller derby has for being fake and trashy for several years now and this article certainly does not help us do that. Mr. Maldonado misstates facts about the sport and then he refers to roller derby as a “novelty”, a “parody” and a “non-sport”. Anyone involved in roller derby is left with the impression he barely researched this (and Wikipedia does not count as research) and treated the entire assignment like a joke. I persoanlly feel disrespected and from the looks of all the comments, so do a lot of other people.
Share your thoughts
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.