Selling the Third Wave: The Commodification and Consumption of the Flat Track Roller Girl

• Main Author: Whitlock, Mary Catherine
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholar Commons 2012
• Subjects: consumerism; performativity; Roller Derby; social movement; third wave feminism; American Studies; Arts and Humanities; Sociology; Women's Studies
• Online Access: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4255; http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5451&context=etd

In an ethnographic examination of the "modern" roller derby movement that began in the early 2000s, I explore Women's Flat Track Derby in Florida. What does it mean to be a roller derby player? How is she conceptualized and commodified? Or more centrally, how is third wave feminism used as a catalyst of this commodification? In order to fully appreciate, understand, and even embrace roller derby, I look at roller derby leagues as social movement organizations (SMOs) in order to note how they frame themselves and maintain collective identity the commodification of third wave feminism. First, I will explore various facets of the "modern" roller derby movement by way of gender, sexuality, and youth as central themes of roller derby culture and identity. Second, I note how roller derby utilizes rhetoric associated with third wave feminism. Third, I examine how roller derby is conceptualized as a social movement and while doing so note the charity organizations that various leagues support. I go on to explore how cultural capital is used in roller derby as a way to create insider knowledge while appropriating third wave feminism. Finally, I will look at how all aspects of roller derby I discussed illuminate a critique of third wave feminism. It is through these facets that I illustrate how the modern flat track roller derby employs third wave feminist rhetoric to produce and commodify the roller derby player identity.