The Revival of The Tough Girl

When you search for roller skating, the majority of the images on the first page give it a happy and wholesome image with happy families, fun roller rinks depicted. It’s an image that dates back to the early 1920s roller-skating started out as a wholesome family activity. Around the 80s it experienced a resurgence with roller discos and the start of a new contact sport, Roller Derby for men and women.

Roller Derby: Women Get Physical

In 2009 Drew Barrymore made her directorial debut with what’s now become a cult classic, Whip It. The film is a coming of age story set in Texas, where our protagonist, Bliss Cavendar  (Ellen Page) finds herself in the very contact sport of Roller Derby. Miles away from the dainty and overtly feminine world of beauty pageants that Bliss grew up in, the women in her team Hurl Scouts are tough, gritty and still sexy but in a feisty way.

This film sparked a resurgence of roller derby with spikes in searches for roller derby when the film was released in cinemas and a year later when it came out on DVD. It also caused a rebranding of roller skates; according to Hayley Krischer of The New York Times, “roller skates have become an accessory of female empowerment. “Unlike its roller disco origins, roller derby is a full-on contact sport, that means shoves, bruises and the occasional broken limb but all of this is what makes it a great space for women, a “safe place where women are encouraged to be aggressive and assertive”

A Global Wave

Not only in the west but across the globe, roller skating and roller derby are bringing a new passion to women and challenging the stereotypes of femininity and identity. In China, Adele Pavlidis describes it as a “postfeminist emblem of power, strength and courage” that’s helping women look at their bodies in a new light, a flower but made of sturdier materials. Thanks to its self-regulatory nature, it allows women to feel a part of a movement and therein lies its ties to the feminist movement.

“I like bruises, they made me more comfortable with my body, more confident with contact.”
- Sumer Abdelnasser, 26, a television scriptwriter via New York Times

Challenging the market

Advertising, like many media forms, takes on the role of storyteller and mediator of identity. The codes and conventions used in ads to represent a person or a story become the signs and symbols which we use to make sense of the world. But, it’s not a one-way street, advertising takes its cues from reality, hence why we’ve seen a shift to challenging the representation of women and femininity echoed in advertising.

Take Always, for instance, they’ve made several attempts to help change the perception of femininity and what it means to be a woman with a big focus on young girls. It started with their Like A Girl campaign which premiered during the Superbowl, a predominately male-orientated and traditionally masculine sport. In the ad, we see them ask people to run or hit like a girl, which is performed as a weaker, less focused version. By doing so they aim to confront the negative associations of doing something ‘like a girl’ and give girls the confidence to pursue the things they’re told they're not capable of.

It’s a campaign that has seen them through the last four years and has made a lasting impact. Concretely the campaign has received over 85 million views and after watching the film 76% of 16-24s saw the phrase in a positive light compared to only 19% before.

The Future Is Female

Although Always is a good example of the shift, progress is slow and we are still miles away from always using accurate or positive representations. Which is why it’s important and significant that sports like roller derby are rising forward and giving women the space to challenge these stereotypes themselves. As brands and advertisers, it’s our responsibility to react and implement these shifts in identity in our work.

Lynn Nyemba