Graduation Date
Spring 2018
Document Type
Thesis
Program
Master of Arts degree with a major in Sociology
Committee Chair Name
Renèe Byrd
Committee Chair Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Second Committee Member Name
Jennifer Eichstedt
Second Committee Member Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Subject Categories
Sociology
Abstract
While sociology of sport has been growing steadily over the last few decades, with an increased focus on how sports participation allow for active identity construction, research on roller derby is incredibly limited. I argue that research on roller derby provides an important window for understanding gendered sports construction and participation. Derby also provides a space where identities are created through performance in addition to the creation of unique personas or in some cases primary identities. In this study, I conducted 15 semi-structured open ended interviews using non-probability and snowball sampling techniques of a rural roller derby league as well as participant observation for just over one year. Interviews revealed that skaters often identified heavily with their roller derby identity but also experience contention about what the derby community and derby athlete should look like, particularly in relation to what skaters wore during bouts. Participants were quick to assert they do not care how others present themselves, but also carried hegemonic ideas of femininity, embodiment, and sport identities where hyper-femininity and sexuality was often rejected for a more masculine or “legitimate” sporting identity. The reproduction of hierarchies and oppression that exist in derby are important to consider when viewing and athletic, derby, identity since these identities develop in a sport predominately created by, and for, women.
Citation Style
ASA
Recommended Citation
Stone, Torisha, "We break our bodies to save our souls: identity construction through the participation in flat track roller derby" (2018). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 169.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/169