Lesbian Fantasy and Roller Derby - The Backlash!!! Part Two

So, having read that lovely article .... and please check out his apology, I forgot to quote that ....

I, however, am truly confused by those roller-derby loving readers that felt attacked by my "lack of respect or knowledge" for roller derby (umm ... rollerblades???!!!!)


Anyway .... here's what you guys had to say about 'Lesbian Fantasy, Disguised'

• Rollerblades?!   Hilarious. What a moron.

• As a director, if Drew Barymore thinks she made a good film, she shouldn't feel the need to play lesbian make-out with Ellen Page to promote it.  That's like saying 'hey, you may not know what roller derby is about but look - hot girls kissing! and there's a movie! come and watch it!  If idiots like the psychology today writer get the wrong idea about roller derby, it's entirely her fault. Thanks Drew!

• With the caveat that I am bisexual and thus my views may be slightly different to those who are not and that I don't tend to mince my words. The paragraph you picked out from the article, and the two following it, really get my knickers in a twist - it's an infuriatingly inaccurate portrayal of the sport we love, derogatory to lesbians and until I've seen the film itself I can't say for certain if Clyman is serious about the film itself's portrayal of derby. Please see annotated (and heavily sarcastic) version below:

A. "Whip It" is about roller blading (wrong!), which this movie defines as a group of half-drunk women (good luck skating well around a flat track while half drunk, unless you don't go out there to try and win some points), in tight athletic gear (well, why not? It is a sport.) and rollerblades (no!!) muscling each other for inside positioning, as a few key teammates weave in and out of the pack (I'll concede that, though possibly he has the wrong end of the stick). Those that have finesse are chased by those that have strength, somewhat akin to the cat and mouse pursuit of a top and bottom sexual power dynamic (I'd say he's a sub as opposed to a dom, wouldn't you?) (there's a reason the standard sexual position is missionary) (Yes, it's the best way to get the semen in to create babies). In short, this game is a metaphor for sex (if you're an uptight, lonely, single, American frat boy, maybe).
B. The protagonist, Bliss (Page), behaves in the way that a lesbian might behave before she knows she's a lesbian (which is how exactly???). We meet her just as she's playfully dying her hair blue (awesome, wish I could do that!) for a beauty pageant. Her inexplicable love for roller derby (it's really fun?) is incited by the image of three women pushing each other on rollerblades (SKATES, DAMMIT!!). She dumps her boyfriend with suspicious ease and celerity (he was obviously a complete mong, then). She's an adolescent who likes to be different (teenager, much?), is experimental and puts a boyfriend second to roller derby (i.e.: got her priorities right). Now, obviously none of these things makes her a suppressed lesbian (right, so why are you presenting this as an argument?), but as a lesbian in the audience you might be cued into the possibility of an alternative, unconscious sexual agenda (or you might just like watching cute girls in short skirts and stripey socks skate around in circles).
C. A character named "Jaba the Slut" is definitely a lesbian (and I'm Queen Elizabeth). She winks at girls and offers them drinks and come-on lines (wow, this guy really needs to get laid). This is never made explicit (so, again, why are you presenting this as an argument?), which signals to the audience that lesbianism is both present and not really present (WTF?!?!?!!!!).

•   Yes. Clyman has clearly been studying Freud this week as well, with his analysis of Johnny Rocket's name making "it more than obvious that he represents a penis, an impotent one". Harsh, man. Harsh.
•  Now, I concede that I need to actually see the film before any of his views can be properly analysed and digested, but most of what he's written is a load of poorly-researched bollocks. I find his apology post absolutely hilarious. "I, however, am truly confused by those roller-derby loving readers that felt attacked by my "lack of respect or knowledge" for roller derby." Well, y'know, maybe if you'd actually done some reading around the subject, you'd have known that they're not blades, they're quad skates.

• Never mind lesbianism...I had no idea the film was about ROLLERBLADING.

• This article says more about the writer's psychology than anything... maybe he has vagina envy :D

• He was obviously dumped by a Derby Girl...

• (About the apology) I am frustrated by the fact that he is still blinkered to roller derby as the main theme of the movie AND that he is basically acting defensively instead of admitting that he offended so many people in the initial article. It's like he is is saying "I'm sorry, BUT...."