The zebra was one of my favourite animals when I was a kid. It was like a horse, but with a cooler paint job. Today, the zebras I interact with are human ones - the fine referees of roller derby. Assuming you're not playing renegade derby, you need refs if you want to play the game. And derby is a damn complicated game.
Some of my favourite leagues, like Terminal City, list their refs as a kind of team all their own. When it comes down to it, refs have to pass their own skills testing, they have to know WFTDA rules inside and out and they have to deal with derby girls. It's not glamourous, but it is pretty bad-ass. As the Montreal Roller Derby Referees' page says, "No pain and no glory, not vain nor scary, just a simple concoction: Respect, rules and execution." Our zebras are part of what makes the derby machine run. They tell you that you're the lead jammer, they send you and your booty-shorts to the penalty seat.
When I first started practicing, I was struck by the seeming fact that refs were almost always male. Women's derby has two particular roles men can play, namely referees and coaches. At first, it irked me that these positions of authority were held by guys. Couldn't women ref? Couldn't women coach? Wasn't patriarchy one of the things we went to derby to escape, at least for the duration of a two-minute jam? It bothered me that a sport I identified as feminist just seemed to reinscribe tired gender stereotypes by having the women in fishnets and the men in positions of power. I've since learned that lots of women do both of these things, but the majority of women prefer to skate because that's what they came for. Skating is the sexy part. Reffing is a different kind of hard.
My league has several refs we know and love and these range from home-grown officials to volunteers we've borrowed from other leagues. My refs have taught me how to manage the penalty box and my refs have shown me how to handle my gear better. Referees are crucial resources for players, especially new ones, to learn about the game, their gear, and skating technique. So, in short, I say show your zebras some love today and ask them a question. These folks know their stuff.
Showing posts with label wftda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wftda. Show all posts
Monday, 12 September 2011
Friday, 26 August 2011
Queerying Derby + Derby in Transition
When I first joined my derby league, I remember complaining to a friend, "I thought there would be more queer women."* What else had Whip It! taught me, if not that at roller derby after-parties, cute women would be seducing each other in the hot tub? Hadn't my league skated at Pride London? Where were all the gay ladies at? As it turned out, there were plenty of awesome women all over the sexuality spectrum. I had just assumed that I was alone.
Why were my expectations so specific? Women's sports are often stereotypically associated with the presence of gay ladies, which reminds us that the assumption that all gay women are butch and that all supposedly butch women are gay is still prevalent. And roller derby is seen as a very queer-positive sport in particular. In Toronto during Pride, there's the annual Clam Slam, a bout between queer derby players from all over Canada and the US. And what environment could be more conducive to bringing in queer women than a feminist, women-focused space that happens to feature the occasional pair of booty shorts?
As a queer derby player, I've always felt welcomed by my league. They really came to my attention because they skated in the 2010 Pride London Parade, which was part of why I assumed the league would be a queer haven. And it is. Though we can never rest and say, "Oh, we're supportive enough," I must say I'm happy with my league's attitude toward queer players.
One area where we (and by 'we', I mean every league, every player) need to keep working is trans issues. WFTDA's gender policy states that a female is someone "living as a woman and having sex hormones that are within the medically acceptable range for a female". While the fact that WFTDA is not perpetuating trans invisibility is a good thing, the policy is far from perfect. Some, myself included, would say it's still intensely discriminatory. Why?
In the first place, WFTDA's policy places the burden of 'proving' oneself to be a woman solely on the shoulders of trans players. As a cis-gendered woman, I simply don't have to jump through the same hoops that a trans player does. That's discrimination. Additionally, placing a player's status as a woman in a medical professional's hands robs that player of the right to simply say, "I am a woman," and be heard.
The issue of having hormones determine someone's sex, let alone their gender, is also dubious. When it comes down to it, there's no good way to 'test' for gender and sex except asking. Just ask. Ask and then take the answer at face value. I once had a (deeply transphobic) partner "accuse" me of being trans. While I couldn't care less if people think I'm trans (because trans people are brave and unbelievably strong and frankly, I'd take it as a compliment), I remember being deeply offended that my answer regarding my gender and sex wasn't assumed to be "honest". I felt trapped by that person's refusal to just believe me. I felt reduced to the status of a non-person, because my claim to my gender was, according to that person, supposedly insufficient.
In short, I believe the WFTDA policy needs to be changed if the sport is going to continue to progress and prove it really is a feminist sport we can be proud of. Read the policy and decide for yourself. But accord a fellow derby player the same respect you would give a friend or a person on the street. Believe them when they tell you who they are.
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* A note on my language: I'm using the word 'queer' as an umbrella term for folks, in this case largely women, whose sexuality is not limited to opposite-sex attraction. I know not everyone likes the word queer, but it's my word and I use it freely.
Why were my expectations so specific? Women's sports are often stereotypically associated with the presence of gay ladies, which reminds us that the assumption that all gay women are butch and that all supposedly butch women are gay is still prevalent. And roller derby is seen as a very queer-positive sport in particular. In Toronto during Pride, there's the annual Clam Slam, a bout between queer derby players from all over Canada and the US. And what environment could be more conducive to bringing in queer women than a feminist, women-focused space that happens to feature the occasional pair of booty shorts?
As a queer derby player, I've always felt welcomed by my league. They really came to my attention because they skated in the 2010 Pride London Parade, which was part of why I assumed the league would be a queer haven. And it is. Though we can never rest and say, "Oh, we're supportive enough," I must say I'm happy with my league's attitude toward queer players.
One area where we (and by 'we', I mean every league, every player) need to keep working is trans issues. WFTDA's gender policy states that a female is someone "living as a woman and having sex hormones that are within the medically acceptable range for a female". While the fact that WFTDA is not perpetuating trans invisibility is a good thing, the policy is far from perfect. Some, myself included, would say it's still intensely discriminatory. Why?
In the first place, WFTDA's policy places the burden of 'proving' oneself to be a woman solely on the shoulders of trans players. As a cis-gendered woman, I simply don't have to jump through the same hoops that a trans player does. That's discrimination. Additionally, placing a player's status as a woman in a medical professional's hands robs that player of the right to simply say, "I am a woman," and be heard.
The issue of having hormones determine someone's sex, let alone their gender, is also dubious. When it comes down to it, there's no good way to 'test' for gender and sex except asking. Just ask. Ask and then take the answer at face value. I once had a (deeply transphobic) partner "accuse" me of being trans. While I couldn't care less if people think I'm trans (because trans people are brave and unbelievably strong and frankly, I'd take it as a compliment), I remember being deeply offended that my answer regarding my gender and sex wasn't assumed to be "honest". I felt trapped by that person's refusal to just believe me. I felt reduced to the status of a non-person, because my claim to my gender was, according to that person, supposedly insufficient.
In short, I believe the WFTDA policy needs to be changed if the sport is going to continue to progress and prove it really is a feminist sport we can be proud of. Read the policy and decide for yourself. But accord a fellow derby player the same respect you would give a friend or a person on the street. Believe them when they tell you who they are.
-
* A note on my language: I'm using the word 'queer' as an umbrella term for folks, in this case largely women, whose sexuality is not limited to opposite-sex attraction. I know not everyone likes the word queer, but it's my word and I use it freely.
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