ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on what modern day roller derby means for broader issues of gender and power by attempting to answer the overarching question of the author's research study: Why derby? Why now? Roller derby challenges such a binary view of gender, by disputing the existence of only two genders through the welcoming of skaters who identify along a spectrum of genders, and by disregarding scripts of appropriate male and femaleness. Moreover, derby yields sites through which athletes contest gender norms and boundaries. Thus, instead of producing and reproducing existing power structures that maintain a hierarchy privileging masculinity (and men) over femininity (and women), derby disrupts these structures in both large and incremental ways, ultimately illuminating moments of awareness and emancipation in participants' lives. The chapter identifies various ways the author argues roller derby as a site of gendered resistance and rebellion is a useful construct with which to view this phenomenon of its resurgence.
