Roller Derby: Bringing Power to Femininity
A virtual-reality landscape exploring how roller derby brings power to femininity: placing viewers inside the heart of the sport and allowing them to interact with pieces of the environment that represent this empowerment. Not only is roller derby empowering on its own, but it is particularly fascinating as it redefines what it means to be a female athlete. Femininity is appropriated and redefined as something powerful and tough. The players wear skirts, paint their faces with theatrical makeup, tie up their hair in pigtails -- all things typically associated with traditional interpretations of femininity (as something delicate, innocent, beautiful, and vulnerable). Instead, the players take these things and make them representative of a different character: girls who are independent, assertive, aggressive, self-confident, active, stable, confident, disciplined.
by Maggie Bouchard
Go!