Happy 2nd Birthday CCR!!

Central City Rollergirls celebrated two highly successful years last night with a 
Birthday Bash in Birmingham 

Congratulations girls!! xxx

Carnival of the Strange Reminder ...

This Saturday -  21st November, the Lincolnshire Bombers will host the Carnival of the Strange!

Doors open at 1pm, @ Newark Show Ground with acts, performers, burlesque, bands, childrens areas, live Roller Derby Action! Plus UK's first public showing of Mens Roller Derby!

Only £7 each(under 10's free!) Tickets available via PAYPAL HERE.

Las Ninas Muertas vs Children of the Damned....
The two teams will be battling it out for the title of Queens of the Carnival! and features skaters from across the country - Lincolnshire Bombers, Auld Reekie Roller Girls, Central City Rollergirls, Glasgow Rollergirls, Leeds Roller Dolls, Middlesbrough Milk Rollers, Sheffield Steel Rollergirls, Rainy City Roller Girls, Rebellion Roller Girls and Windsor Roller Girls!

Make sure get a ticket as this is sure to be a hugely spectacular event.

Wanna be a Santa on Skates?

Anyone fancy dressing as Santa and skating around Liverpool City Centre?

Members of the Liverpool Birds and Rainy City Roller Girls are planning to take part in the Liverpool Santa Dash on skates, and are looking for people to join them!

If you're already fairly confident then sign up to skate, and if not but you want to be involved, then the girls are looking for volunteers to help them with any hills and obstacles along the way, as well as flyering and flag carrying.

For further info and an entry form CLICK HERE, and contact the Liverpool Birds here

Need a Roller Waitress?

The Middlesbrough Milk Rollers have come up with a novel idea to raise funds ...

They are offering their services as roller waitresses for birthday and Christmas parties, and corporate events.

The girls and boys are reliable, polite and very good at keeping drinks on trays whilst skating.
They will travel for work, offer reasonable rates of hire, and can dress to fit a theme, for example 70s.

To find out more, check out the FACEBOOK group or EMAIL HERE!

Rebellion Rollergirls get new site ....

Bedford's Rebellion Rollergirls have a brand new WEBSITE and are recruiting now!

Leicester Girls become the Dolly Rockit Rollers!

Introducing the Dolly Rockit Rollers! 

SlamAbama and Nitro Nush from Central City Rollergirls have just set up a brand new league in Leicester, so if you're in that neck of the woods and fancy getting your skates on check out their FACEBOOK GROUP and MySpace!

Steel Girls flatten Milk Rollers ....

..... in a photo!!

As for the Bout ... the final score from the Closed Bout was

Middlesbrough 88: Sheffield 113

Congratulations girls, from what I hear it was a really close and hard-fought bout .... proper round-up to come very soon, watch this space!

The Round-Up Bout Hits Twitter!!

Want to be the first to know all the news and gossip from the UK Roller Derby world?  It's even easier now to keep updated on brand new Round-Up Bout posts .... not only can you SUBSCRIBE .... see the right hand side of the page, just beneath the Blog Archive - but you can also now follow 

The Round-Up Bout Twitter!!!

Liverpool Roller Birds take flight!

Anyone in the Liverpool area keen to get involved with the brand new league, Liverpool Roller Birds, get your skates on!


First practice will take place at Garston Urban Village Hall from 12pm - 2pm this Saturday afternoon.


Practice is FREE but there's a nominal fee to hire equipment.  If you need to hire equipment, please email the Birds beforehand so they can reserve some for you.


Skaters need to be 18 and over, and boys are more than welcome!


Good luck Birds!


Jet Stepper xxx

Winter Wonderslam!

Who? Ultraviolent Femmes (LRG) vs Steam Rollers (LRG)

When? December 5th 5pm - 8pm

Where? Tottenham Leisure Centre, 1 Philip Lane, Tottenham, London

MORE INFO

London Rollergirls are back ....

With the first bout of their second league season. Last season the Steam Rollers and Ultraviolents ended up watching the Suffra Jets take the league championship - so this time they both have something to prove, and they have some new team members to help with the effort.

Who will start off with a bang and a win? Be there to see the hard-hitting roller derby action in person. Tickets will be for sale online soon

Carrie on Skating Pics Up

Wullie Marr has just posted the official pics from Carrie on Skating up on Facebook.  Click HERE to see them, and if you're not already his friend, add Wullie here.

LRG win Great Britons Competition!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/londonrollergirls/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

Congratulations LRG!!! Kamikaze Kitten and the rest of the London Rollergirls were awarded free flights to US to help them train with New York's Gotham Girls.


Here's what the girls had to say about it ....
Millions and millions of thanks from all of us here at the LRG for voting for us in the Great Britons competition! We just got official word that we won the public vote, and we will get 14 free flights to New York next April! This is such a massive boost for us and takes a lot of the pressure off fundraising for the tour. We promise to bring back what we learn!!

Check out their victory HERE and cheers to all of you who voted!

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

And finally .... here are my opinions on his article, and Roller Derby as a 'Lesbian Fantasy'

Firstly, I’m still not sure why Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page snogged in Marie Claire to promote the opening of Whip It!  Neither am I sure why their interview was filled with quite so much ‘mutual adoration’, however I don’t agree with Jeremy Clyman’s analysis of the film.

Having seen Whip It! while I was in the States a few weeks ago, I admit that a viewer could have thought in the first thirty minutes of the film that Bliss had a lesbian crush on the Derby Girls.  When she first sees the TXRD girls, it’s done in slow-motion with goofy music, and you don’t necessarily understand where her massive passion for the sport so quickly develops – her best friend is unaffected by the display bout they watch, and this bout isn’t particularly well filmed so an uninformed viewer might not understand the draw of the game.

Yet after the first thirty minutes, Bliss goes on to find herself a BOYfriend, and any potential gay undertone disappears.  All the skaters she is close to seemed to be straight – Drew Barrymore’s character is married, and her mentor Maggie Mayhem has a child from a previous heterosexual relationship.

Addressing two of Clyman's points specifically - I thought the coach, boyfriend and Bliss's father were all strong enough male characters, they just weren't body-building alpha-males!  And 'Jabba the Slut' is only shown once, so I don't know what version of the film he saw!

This obviously isn’t to say there aren’t lesbian rollergirls, it’s just to say that in my opinion the film had no undertone of homosexuality whatsoever, so I can’t understand why Jeremy Clyman drew so heavily on one in his article.  He claimed that the idea of playing a non-mainstream sport as rebellion was a parallel to coming out, but I really don’t get that assumption.

And as for lesbians in Roller Derby … of course there are lesbians in the game!  There are also lesbians who play every other women's sport I can think of!  In my personal experience, I’ve known a higher percentage of gay women in sports teams than in my life outside sport, but this can be attributed to a number of factors, including the fact that people bring often bring their friends into a sport, and my lesbian friends have a lot of lesbian friends … do the maths! 

Having said that, a key aesthetic of roller derby, as Wikipedia so neatly defines, is ‘punk third-wave feminism’ – ie the tattoos, fish-net, burlesque, sassy, rocker, take-no shit aspect of the game.  Whilst that is in no ways an exclusively lesbian theme, it is something that I would suggest probably attracts a lot of gay women … as well as straight girls with tattoos, and straight girls with a love for fish-nets, and straight girls who like the thought of standing up for themselves!!!

So maybe there are a disproportionate number of lesbians in the sport, but does that really matter?  It definitely doesn’t make it a lesbian sport, any more than it makes it a straight sport.  It’s A SPORT …. And one of the most inclusive I’ve ever come across!  The reason I started skating was because after one trial session I was taken aback by how welcoming and non-exclusive the girls were.  I love the fact that it’s a sport that accepts any girl – whether she’s gay, straight, fat, thin, tall, small, tattooed, pierced, or ‘untouched’.  So let’s not let uninformed critics like Jeremy Clyman cast the sport with a certain brush, and instead, let's work as a team to get an image of Roller Derby as one of the most inclusive and exciting new sports out to the masses. 

Hopefully then we'll be able to draw in huge crowds in like the ones in Whip It!

Jet Stepper xxx

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...."

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

Right so last month I drew your attention to a questionable article by Jeremy Clyman, on Psychology Today.  The blog was titled 'Lesbian Fantasy, Disguised', and discussed the film Whip It! as a film really about lesbians and the pressures of coming out in the Deep South, and in doing so, branded Roller Derby as little more than a euphemism for lesbian sex.
Whilst he later published an apology - Lesbian Fantasy, Reconsidered - he still failed to be missing the point!

I'm gonna do this in three parts .....

First of all, here's what he had to say

Let's back up before we get into conspiracy theories. "Whip It" is directed by a female (Barrymore), its protagonist is female (Page), and the story is about a girl who becomes a woman in a female dominated world. There isn't a serious male character to be seen. Oddly enough, the film is also about sports and the Deep South. I know what you're thinking. I, as a heterosexual man, am incapable of watching an exclusively female story without conflating its straightforward coming-of-age purpose with some sort of secret, subversive sexual agenda. Why can't I just appreciate this movie as the female version of adolescent identity growth and discovery? Why force meaning in-between the lines and covertly degrade this story as only interesting if satisfying some half-cocked interpretation?




So, where is lesbian fantasy to be found in this film? Let's back up even further for a minute. What is the primary function that films serve? Escape. Specifically, escape into a desirable fantasy world from an undesirable reality. Let's imagine for a moment that you are a closeted lesbian in a suppressively heterosexual environment like Bovine, Texas. You are not coming out. You would probably rather die then come out. Thus, you are walking around with unmet needs. You have a desire to be truly known, sexually gratified and socially accepted, but society relentlessly disappoints. There is a convincing pile of emerging research that examines the specifics of this kind of misery. It is real. It is profound. If you are a filmmaker then you have the opportunity to, at least temporarily, assuage this kind of misery. But you have to be careful. If you make the story about something that is almost as "bad" as being a lesbian, and you tell a tale of adversity overcome, of strength, growth and freedom then you can indulge this fantasy of lesbian actualization without activating the anxiety of reality, that is, the shame of feeling different and the fear of being different in a prejudice society.


(T)here needs to be a wink-and-nod to the lesbian-in-hiding audience that sexuality is the real issue. A couple points here:
A. "Whip It" is about roller blading, which this movie defines as a group of half-drunk women, in tight athletic gear and rollerblades muscling each other for inside positioning, as a few key teammates weave in and out of the pack. 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 (there's a reason the standard sexual position is missionary). In short, this game is a metaphor for sex.
B. The protagonist, Bliss (Page), behaves in the way that a lesbian might behave before she knows she's a lesbian. We meet her just as she's playfully dying her hair blue for a beauty pageant. Her inexplicable love for roller derby is incited by the image of three women pushing each other on rollerblades. She dumps her boyfriend with suspicious ease and celerity. She's an adolescent who likes to be different, is experimental and puts a boyfriend second to roller derby. Now, obviously none of these things makes her a suppressed lesbian, but as a lesbian in the audience you might be cued into the possibility of an alternative,unconscious sexual agenda.
C. A character named "Jaba the Slut" is definitely a lesbian. She winks at girls and offers them drinks and come-on lines. This is never made explicit, which signals to the audience that lesbianism is both present and not really present


Even copying an pasting this I have to stop myself screaming out at the many blatant mistakes ... but just quickly, before I start on my real argument .... Jaba the Slut only appeared once in the version of the movie that I saw, and that was simply to tell someone her skater name, and there are a heap of strong male roles in the film ....

ok .... enough of this .... lets see what you guys thought ......


Jet xxx

Drew Barrymore to join Roller Derby - Ruff & Tumble?!

Here at the Round-Up Bout I've noticed a number of you are members of 'Ruff & Tumble' a special Facebook group to document your 'best' derby injuries!

I'm actually currently sporting a black eye and swollen cheek ... though nothing to do with derby I'm afraid!!! (Damn it ... there goes my anonymity! ;) )

Anyway, El Toupee just spotted this article about Drew Barrymore injuring herself during the filming of Whip It!  Wonder if she'll be joining the club?

And speaking of which .... how about we have a little competition on The Round-Up Bout???
Post a picture of your best/worst Roller Derby injury (Darmonatrix, the paper cut doesn't count ;) ) in the comments at the bottom of this blogpost (on Blogger, not on Facebook - you need to click through to the original link if you're reading this on Facebook).

Then here at The Round-Up Bout we'll decide whose is the most gory!!

Derby Love,
Jet Stepper xxx

CLOSED BOUT - Middlesbrough Milk Rollers vs Sheffield Steel

INVITE ONLY .... so get sucking up!!

When? Saturday November 7th, 3pm - 5pm

Where? Rainbow Leisure Centre, Coulby Newham, Middlesbrough

The time has come for two of the North's leagues, from places built on steel, to come and knock each other on the track....behind closed doors.

Middlesbrough Milk Rollers are the North East's first league and have been rolling since 2007. With a couple bouts under their belts, they have guests from Leeds Roller Dolls and Rebellion Roller Girls making up the team.

Sheffield Steel made their debut against Leeds this summer , and have a couple of Leeds Dolls joining them to take on MMR. Sheffield are a bunch of gutsy girls who are as nasty on track as they are nice off it.

This is a one-off bout away from public view, so each member can invite people to cheer them on.

It should be a good game as both teams are similarly matched, as tenacious as each other and play to win! Grr!

War of the Roses

Who? Rainy City Roller Girls vs Leeds Roller Dolls

When? Saturday November 28th,  3pm - 5.30pm

Where?   Armitage Sports Centre, Moseley Road, Fallowfield, Manchester M14 6HE

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS!

Manchester’s Rainy City Roller Girls take on Leeds Roller Dolls in their first ever home bout!
The bout will take place just out side of Manchester City Centre in Fallowfield, and is one not to be missed!!

'On a Roll with the Girls' - ARRG in the News

Auld Reekie hit the Scottish headlines today with a lengthy article in the Comment section of Scotland on Sunday.

To read the article, which contains quotes from Daisy Disease, Haberbashery, Armalite Angie, Skate Tastrophy, Ciderella, Juicy Lucy and Cherry Fury,  CLICK HERE!

Carrie on Skating!

This weekend Glasgow Roller 'Ghouls' hosted - a special Hallowe'en frenzy full of tricks and treats!

Here's what El Toupee had to say about the event ....

In their debut bout, Maiden Grrders took on the Romsey Town Rollerbillies in what I can only presume was an officially 'unofficial' bout - two twenty-minute periods instead of the usual thirty-minute halves. That confusion aside, it was possibly the most exciting bout I've seen yet. The Grrders and Rollerbillies fought tooth and nail to a time-limit draw. Big Cat Merv did a sterling job of play-by-play commentary  and the crowd, were simply loving it, and not shy to let it be known! Following a Zebra Huddle ("Erm, what do we do?!") the bout went to an Overtime Jam, with Romsey eeking out by 3 points!

Special congratulations to Darmonatrix (Rollerbillies), who bagged Best Blocker and Best Take Down awards.

Oh, and did I mention there was ref on in-lines skates? For Shame!

I then settled in for the first half of the main event: Glasgow Roller Girls’ Irn Bruisers vs. the Rainy City Rollergirls. The Bruisers ranked third at Roll Britannia, and so it quickly became apparent that Rainy City were in for a hard time. I'm not going to sell them short: they fought hard, and pulled off some pretty neat stuff on track, but even when the Bruisers down to two players on track they couldn't quite get their groove on.

There was a lot of penalty box action - GRG regularly seemed to be playing short on track. Everyone must have racked up more than their fair share of Minors, but there was nothing (that the Zebras saw, at least) that suggested anyone was taking unfair advantages.

Rainy City were in with a chance when the bout re-started, having chipped away at their opponent's score with a series of powerplays, but the Bruisers stepped it up a notch. Rainy City's Mookchops and Dee-Mise deserve special mention, as does Feral Fairy, for gutting it out against the Bruisers' defense and putting more points on the board, but when you're skating up to Evel Von Detta (who's skating backwards whilst smack-talking you) and you've got Dreaded Dragon simply gliding around the track like she's on rails, then maybe it's too steep a mountain to climb.

The Irn Bruisers won convincingly, but Rainy City definitely punched above their weight for the first half. I'm sure the Leeds Roller Dolls were paying attention too - LRD travel to RCRG on November 28th.