Taking the "Girls" Out of Roller Derby

KathieSkateLogKathieSkateLog
in Roller Derby

There are hundreds of roller derby teams and leagues in many different parts of the world, and as I am browsing through their Web sites I am noticing something many of them have in common:

The majority of roller derby teams and leagues that at one time had "Girls" or "Rollergirls" in their names have removed that word. Most common: "Whatever Roller Girls" renamed to something like Whatever Roller Derby".

Does anybody know what sparked that change?

I'm wondering if it had anything to do with the fact that the World Skate Federation - the organization that replaced the International Roller Sports Federation (FIRS) - now includes roller derby in the sports for which they sanction competitions.

Here is the Roller Derby section of the World Skate Web Site: http://www.worldskate.org/roller-derby.html

Kathie Walling Fry

https://www.facebook.com/skatelog/

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Comments

  • RainbowCrashRainbowCrash

    I know that when asked, my league said it was to recognize the non-binary skaters that make up part of the league and to recognize their gender identities and not erase them.

  • rookrook

    Forgive my ignorance (new skater), but does roller derby then always preclude male participation?

  • BenmyBoyBenmyBoy

    How y'all doing, Great i would hope.

    I stated roller derby back in the day and I presently referee games out here in Amarillo Texas but I grew up skating at Moonlight rollerway in Glendale California if I the best answer your question they got rid of the female name isn't due to a lot of the the butcher girls didn't like the word girl being being used to describe their team and just went with the main name of her team can drop the girl bombers to just the bomb for example.

    There are leagues that still have the male aspect of the team but unfortunately there's not enough male players / skaters that they end up being part of a league which kind of sucks for me this is why I hang out referee inactive skate as much as I'd love to be out there kicking ass a skating lol.

    Anyway I hope this answers your questions if you have any more please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer and thanks for reading this.

    Pretty Boy Ben Newberg

    From RollerGamrs int.

    Team HOT FLASH

    BENNY 'BOY' NEWBERG

  • vminskatevminskate

    Along with what others said in terms of inclusivity, it's also because "girls" is infantilizing. We are not little girls.

  • AmberEyedDogAmberEyedDog

    hi :)

    I see this is an old thread but maybe someone will like the info:

    we made the change from „XY“ rollergirls to „XY“ rollerderby after a growth period for a number of reasons:

    • our travel team has some non-binary skaters we all wanted to see represented
    • even though most of our active skaters identify as female, the league is made up of so so so much more people: helpers, coaches, refs etc which might or might not be girls - and they should have a place in the name, too
    • We want the possibility to in the future expand even more and maybe be home to a guys and/or mixed team

    sooo… the girls are still there :D but we were joined by a bunch of lovely non-girl people

    plus: it was a nice excuse for a jersey redesign 🤣

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