Portfolio Category - LCEA 2013

Roller derby is one of the few full-contact sports available to women and probably the only full-contact sport played almost exclusively by women. It throws any notions of femininity in your face. Yet many Derby Girls are mothers (perhaps the ultimate “feminine” vocation), and the bouts are extremely family friendly. Immediately I wanted to know more about the women behind the derby personas. So I invited myself into their homes, their most private, domestic spaces, the arena that is historically and culturally seen as a woman's place. Yes these bones shall live isn't only about derby. Rather, it explores how real women contradict and conform to traditional gender codes in performing their identities. What better way to subvert the gender stereotypes and prescriptions than to don fishnets and engage in a legitimate, full-contact sport that toys with performance, sexuality, aggression and our expectations of femininity? Roller derby is physically demanding and sometimes causes serious injuries. Derby girls photograph their injuries and share them like badges of honour. Throughout the project, which is still underway, I photograph and collect photographs of derby-induced injuries. I also collect remnants and photograph objects connected to the past experiences of the derby girls I have met. These items give voice to the experiences that cannot be photographed, the pressures and difficulties and silences specific to women in 21st-century North America. They probe the question of why a woman might be drawn to roller derby, suggesting the stories behind whatever ideas, judgments or assumptions outsiders might have of derby girls.