I Play Derby Because

MEET JERZEY DERBY BRIGADE’S JULY SKATER OF THE MONTH: DET. SURE-BLOCK HOLMES!

How did you first hear about roller derby? I first heard about roller derby from the movie Whip It, forgot about it, then saw signs for a derby league at Villa Roller Rink.

How did you get involved? I googled roller derby leagues after skating at Villa Roller Rink one night and found JDB was near my job.

What does your derby name say about you? Honestly my derby name pays homage to my all time favorite literary character Sherlock Holmes. Gotta love a damaged slightly sociopathic genius..and since reading is my favorite pastime -other than derby- I thought it was a perfect fit.

What position do you like to play and why? Currently I am a blocker, I would love to work up my skill to be a jammer one day, but for now I love blocking.

Did you ever get any gnarly bruises or injuries? How? I always have bruises, usually from Doom Hilda.

Fill in the blank: Roller derby makes me feel _____________: Roller derby makes me feel like I belong.

What do you want the people of Morristown to know about the sport? I want Morristown to know this is an actual sport. Most people I come across think it’s still about brawling in tutus.. There are rules and bruises. But it’s a sport and we don’t need tutus to look awesome doing it.

Thats right!

Permission to be a bad ass. Nod.

He looks back at the guy like, “SEE THAT? SHE SAID YES. YOU’RE SO FUCKED.”

In Sparta, women could own land and were considered citizens. THAT IS A HUGE BIG FUCKING DEAL. Why? Because that was RARE AS FUCK and there are lots of places TODAY where women don’t even get that much.

Divorce was totally fine, and a woman could expect to keep her own wealth and get custody of the kids because paternal lineage wasn’t very important. And it didn’t make her a pariah! She could totally remarry, no big deal at all.

Spartan women participated in some fuckin’ badass sporting events, too. And because they were expected to be as physically fit as the Spartan menfolk (who all had to serve compulsory military duties, btw, and couldn’t marry until they finished them at thirty) they didn’t have time for lots of swishy dresses. So they wore notoriously short skirts. According to some accounts, their thighs were visible at all times. HOLY SHIT. 

Also, In Sparta men only got their names on their graves if they died in battle. And women? Women only got their names on their graves if they died in childbirth. THE SPARTANS COMPARED CHILDBIRTH TO FUCKING BATTLE AND IT WAS VIEWED AS A GODDAMN BADASS AND HONORABLE WAY TO GO OUT.

Plus the women could marry whomever they pleased and the men weren’t allowed to live with the women in their house until she said so. And they were tough in Sparta but also all about family. To have male offspring was good luck, to have female offspring was an honour. 

This part of the movie was true; King Leonidas really did kill a man because he insulted his wife and he always ensured that he had his wife’s approval. And while Leonidas was away in battle she did rule Sparta on her own. 

There’s a lot of evidence of women being super hardcore warriors, either protecting the homestead while the men went viking, or even going viking themselves. (Viking is actually a verb, the act of going on raid.)

They also had divorce, which involved the woman getting together her posse and declaring that she divorced her husband three times - first at the entry to her property, second at the door of her house, and finally at the foot of her marriage bed. After that, she was no longer married to the dude, and could take all of the property she brought to the marriage and leave, usually to return to her parent’s home, but often also to marry some other guy.

…

The moral of this story is that patriarchy doesn’t just affect our present, but also our view of the past. Think that women have been oppressed across all cultures, throughout history? Wrong! Women have been kickass equals for millennia, but it is always the goal of oppressors to rewrite the past so they can use it to support their lifestyle in the present.