SEPT - Whip It

September review for Eclectic Reader's Challenge 2014: Whip It by Shauna Cross, 2007. [Romantic Comedy category]

For this month's Romantic Comedy genre, I started reading something else, and I was sort of surprised by how much I didn't like it, especially because I've liked things she's written before. Something about it got under my skin, I was perpetually irritated by the protagonist, which is never a good sign. So I did what I always do. I found a book that fit for me. I picked Whip It by Shauna Cross, inspiration for the 2009 film, because I recently convinced myself to finally try roller derby and I fell in love. I know Whip It is sort of a cop-out pop-culture representation of what derby is really like, but I guess that's what happens when you find something you love, you want to get all up in it, roll yourself up with the good and the bad. Before I started reading this book, I rationalized it to myself that I was reading it for the romance as in the romance of roller derby, falling in love with roller derby, rather than a person...but it actually did have a lot to say about human love too, which I had forgotten. All in all, my decision worked out :)
The short version of this synopsis is that Bliss Cavendar is a 16 year old living in small-town Bodeen, Texas with a pageant queen mother who is attempting to live vicariously through Bliss, but Bliss is the exact opposite of that life, from her alternative band tees to her bottle blue hair. Somehow, on a trip to Austin, Bliss finds out about a Roller Derby bout that she sneaks off to with her best friend, and it is here that she falls in love. Falls in love with a sport that will change her life, and with a boy who will pretty much do the same, but in a more hurtful, t-shirt-stealing way. And thus begins the romantic comedy, during which Bliss lies to pretty much everyone in her life in order to do the things that she wants. She lies to both Roller Derby and the boy, Oliver, about her age in order to play and run with the cool kids; and she lies to her parents about derby and about the boy because they would most probably (and understandably) freak out about both novelties coming into Bliss's 16-year-old world. I'm not trying to paint Bliss as a bad kid by pointing out how much she lies and sneaks around, I'm just trying to paint the situation that she found herself in and the decisions she made to try to get herself out of it. As the story progresses, Bliss finds herself falling harder and deeper into her new worlds, caught up in a whirlwind she's never known before, and there's definitely an element of that in my own derby experience, even though I never had to lie about my age or not tell my parents or take a senior citizens bus to practice. In Whip It, Bliss acts as the quintessential derby girl, the misfit, the weirdo, the one who fits in with all the other people who don't fit anywhere else. Sure, it is a stereotype, and Shauna Cross does have her fill of those, right down to the "don't date boys in bands" line, but it almost transcends the cliché in its pure, unabashed perspective. Yes, Whip It is a gross simplification; yes, it's the thing all your friends try to remember when you announce that you play roller derby now; yes, it has a team in schoolgirl costumes like a cherry on top. But what Whip It also has is the heart of derby, the quick wit, the honesty, and the can-do attitude that is so refreshing about this amazing sport. Cross beautifully crafts a character whose words and tone speak to the tone of the entire sport, because dammit Bliss is hilarious.

Lance Hardwood Photography

The final reason I chose this book, and the final thing I'd like to touch on, is of course, Roller Derby itself. How much I love it. How the "romance" works for me. I've thought a lot about derby in the months since I took my first hit, and the thing I keep coming back to is its heart. I have never experienced a more accepting and loving group of people who can simultaneously knock your ass to the ground with a good (legal) canopener hit and then help you back up after the jam telling you how great you did. I likened my relationship with roller derby to a romantic comedy because it is one of the funniest spaces I've ever been in, with dirty jokes and teasing that somehow coexists with an incredibly earnest desire to learn and better yourself and your skills. My romance with roller derby got underway this past March, when a new co-worker told me I could always just borrow her stuff for one practice and then decide after, knowing full well that I would never be able to say no again.