Whip It was released in theaters last October (when I should have posted this), but I watched it again last night, and got “Derby Fever” once again. If you are unfamiliar with the film, Ellen Page stars as Bliss Cavender, an alternative misfit who works on a diner and leads a relatively guided life with her mother constantly entering pageants. She soon finds a flyer for a women’s roller derby bout and falls instantly in love. Without giving the entire plot, she joins the team and soars, finding herself in the fitting mantra of the film : Be Your Own Hero.
Putting my love for Ellen Page is hard because she plays this role like a rockstar, but the shows bevy of positive gender roles throughout it. I’ve often coined that “matriarchy is no better than patriarchy”, which could be construed in this film (how is it different than say, men’s wrestling?) because the full contact sport can be relatively injury-inducing. I don’t really want to press the point on this because although agressive sports have their spot for discussion, the film focuses more on the relationships of Bliss finding herself as a young woman.
The characters in this film are phenomenal. Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut shines with positive female energy. The women in the film are both aggressive and caring. Kristen Wiig’s character is touch on the skates, but at night does not go out with her fellow teammates because she is taking care of her son. This shows a mixture of traditional “caretaking” and agressive sports participation. Viewers don’t even realize the “caretaking” side of her until much later on in the film because her son is often referred to as “her man” (which implies she has a boyfriend waiting at home). Drew’s character is probably the most agressive, getting into fights, playfully beating up her boyfriend, and generally having violent tendencies, but she is still fun and loving (she keeps her aggression in the game for the most part).
As much as I am not for agressive sports, the film takes me back to my childhood when roller derby gained it’s second wind of popularity. Even though women being violent isn’t an answer to all the “gender problems” in our society, I think leveling the playing field and showing that women can be tough, independent, and organize themselves (although their coach is male). The film is very loosely based on the real life roller derby resurgence that happened in the 90’s. If you watch the documentary, Hell on Wheels, you get an entirely different outlook on the reality of this resurgence. I would recommend this film as well because it shows how the real life coach was really in it for the money and screwed over the women who were the heart of roller derby, so the re-organized themselves without him.
I don’t want to boast about all the metaphors in the film, it’s a coming of age film, so there are a lot of layers about growth and the transitions from teen to adulthood. When I first saw the film, I was doing some research to see what other people thought about the film, and I found an article in “Psychology Today” entitled “Lesbian Fantasy, Disguised“, where author Jeremy Clyman suggests that the entire film was a huge “coming out” story for Ellen Page’s character. Although my bias comes in the form of being drawn to sociological theory and reasoning, I think some of the claims in this article are just far out. I will start off by saying that film, like most art, is highly interpretive, so his analysis on the film has validity, my main gripe comes with passing off his personal interpretation as either scientific, or sound enough to have on a website that is supposed to support psychological research. My other problem comes with the fact that most of this article ignores any sociological factors.
But I think this film is also a secret communication to closeted lesbians living in hostile places in which the closet is the only safe place to be.
I didn’t get this at all from the film. Bliss and her mother have a tumultuous relationship, but I don’t see this as a “closet-case”. Bliss’ mother enters her into debutant-style pageants, and as a growing teen who is moving into an alternative lifestyle, it just does not fit. A lot of this article talks about “secret communication” a.k.a. “Metaphor!”, which can be found in any film, it doesn’t exclusively suggest that this is the case. Bliss reconsiles with her mother at the end (although agreed her mother doesn’t fully accept it). Although seeing the film through Jeremy’s interpretation would be a good one, and someone like me who is usually looking for metaphors did not see this level of the film at all (again, not suggesting it cannot be there)
Let’s back up before we get into conspiracy theories. “Whip It” is directed by a female (Barrymore), its protagonist is female (Page), and the story is about a girl who becomes a woman in a female dominated world. There isn’t a serious male character to be seen. Oddly enough, the film is also about sports and the Deep South. I know what you’re thinking. I, as a heterosexual man, am incapable of watching an exclusively female story without conflating its straightforward coming-of-age purpose with some sort of secret, subversive sexual agenda.
He does note this, but although they are not the lead characters, there is at least 1 serious male role (which he later effeminates in the article as he wears short shorts). The more you read the article the more you can see that gender is the primary transcendance of this film, and not sexuality (the only obvious sexuality in the film is when Bliss has sex with her :boyfriend: Oliver.
I have developed the hypothesis of “Whip It” as lesbian fantasy in disguise, because even if this is not the intention of the filmmaker, it still works on this level, and by functioning on this level it is serving a social purpose above and beyond the gender equality comment that women can make films too.
I don’t think the “purpose” of the film is to show that women can make films, I think it is that women can be strong, agressive, play sports, kick ass, and still be caring, loving, and dynamic (as all humans should be).
First, there needs to be a concealable stigma, as it is this notion that constitutes the heart of the dilemma of being, in this case, homosexual. Possessing a concealable stigma means that a significant aspect of one’s identity can be hidden from the public, and the public has arbitrarily defined this aspect of identity to be poisonous/unequal/unlovable/you get the idea. “Whip It” is about a less intense stigma than being gay; it is about being a female athlete in a sport that is embedded in a punk culture. This is sufficiently unsuitable for a high-society southern lady hoping to appease societal expectations.
Note the part in bold. He says directly that the stigma is not about being gay, that it is about being a female athlete. Now, if we know anything of SOCIOLOGY, we’d know that gender is a social construct, such as “a female being an athlete”. “Punk Culture”, “High-Society”, “Societal Expectations” (i feel like he is accepting it there at the end), but these are all factors that would hinge on the “female being an athlete” portion of the film, into a gender-breaking film, not a sexuality-breaking film. If Whip it wanted to be “gay”, it would have done it more obviously like in Point C of this next quote
A. “Whip It” is about roller blading, which this movie defines as a group of half-drunk women, in tight athletic gear and rollerblades muscling each other for inside positioning, as a few key teammates weave in and out of the pack. Those that have finesse are chased by those that have strength, somewhat akin to the cat and mouse pursuit of a top and bottom sexual power dynamic (there’s a reason the standard sexual position is missionary). In short, this game is a metaphor for sex.
B. The protagonist, Bliss (Page), behaves in the way that a lesbian might behave before she knows she’s a lesbian. We meet her just as she’s playfully dying her hair blue for a beauty pageant. Her inexplicable love for roller derby is incited by the image of three women pushing each other on rollerblades. She dumps her boyfriend with suspicious ease and celerity. She’s an adolescent who likes to be different, is experimental and puts a boyfriend second to roller derby. Now, obviously none of these things makes her a suppressed lesbian, but as a lesbian in the audience you might be cued into the possibility of an alternative, unconscious sexual agenda.
C. A character named “Jaba the Slut” is definitely a lesbian. She winks at girls and offers them drinks and come-on lines. This is never made explicit, which signals to the audience that lesbianism is both present and not really present.
A. There seems to be a lot of stretching happening here. First of all the “Hurl Scouts” (that sounds sexy, doesn’t it!), and the other teams do dress a little “scantily”, but this could easily be attributed to women recognizing their sexuality (a la “My Short Skirt” in the Vagina Monologues), but it is for them only. They are strong and powerful women, is it gay that men who play football wear tights as well? What would you call a male dancer in a leotard with an all female troupe? Is he trying to “get all the ladies”, gender and stereotyping would dictate otherwise. I don’t think I can even justify a response to how “being chased by those with strength” is a metaphor for sex, with this metaphor, tennis is long distance relationship, doubles tenis is a bisexual game, and rugby is S&M. Anything can be a metaphor for anything, but odds are this isn’t what is happening
B. Dying your hair blue means you are a lesbian. I better go back in time and tell some of my straight friends who did this in high school that they might be gay (it’ll save them year of torturous straight marriage). There is lot of claims without explanation here. When she meets the girls who are pushing each other around, she is drawn to them based on their alternative look (which we know she is into with her blue hair). She puts her boyfriend 2nd to roller derby because why would she give up her new identity (which i am not saying IS heterosexual, but that is the only actual sexuality she shows in the film, maybe she’s bi, but it’s too hard to tell because I think what Jeremy is doing is looking at a lot of the social factors of becoming part of this all-female group and just throwing sexuality onto it). As a person in the audience (having seen it twice and the second time having this article in mind), I didn’t.
[High School Outcasts, Beware! Dying Your Hair Blue Can Cause Gayness]
C. I think it was pretty obvious these two were lesbians (or they could have just been experimenting, or bisexual), but this was literally a 20 second clip in the movie, and was never alluded too again.
I don’t want to respond to the entire article. I picked some points I think refute some of what this article is trying to put out there. He never really talks about the bisexual option (as Bliss does have sex with her boyfriend, and even when she “gives up him so easily”, it doesn’t feel like she is saying “goodbye all men”).
This is my last analysis, and I think it sums up a lot of the, “it’s more about gender, than sex” thing I am talking about here. Note that just about all the things he speaks about are a matter of gender, and not sexuality.
Let’s look at the men in this world: there’s the passive sports-crazed father, the sexually androgynous boyfriend, the I’m-just-one-of-the-girls coach and the horny roller derby announcer.
Just a note that because there are not strong, dominated males in this film, does not logically imply that Bliss is a lesbian. These less dominated males give the film a stream to punch forth their “girl power” (not sexual tendencies). I think its absurd to say that because males were sensitive and non-oppressing in this film, that somehow links sexuality. This directly goes against his earlier point about how repressed she would be in this environment. If there were all these effeminate males, wouldn’t she be more likely to “come out”.
Although dad flirts with mom he clearly loves sports and beer more than sex. This is made conscious with a scene in which Bliss encounters her father’s van in an abandoned, moonlit parking lot. All signs point to raunchy sex until she realizes that he’s just watching the Texas Long Horns.
So, her father is being emasculated because he does not commit adultery. Another absurd analysis. Also, I would say he still retains some of his “manhood” (not entirely sure why this is important), because he IS just sitting around watching sports and drinking beer (typical “man” behavior).
The boyfriend may be straight in the same way the Beatles were harmlessly straight, but his long hair, fondness for wrestling and effeminate smile, at the very least, sucks the testosterone out of the room.
Again, I do not see how her boyfriend lacking testosterone really says anything. This actual counters his point because if Oliver was so feminine, would she not have stayed with him? Although I guess the rebuttal would be that she left a girly man for actual women, but the point remains that because someone is masculine / feminine does not imply sexual orientation.
[Testosterone Free Zone]
The coach inexplicable wears tight jean shorts and inexplicably loves roller derby. He writes play books, pushes them in practice and cheerleads them during games. If roller derby is a metaphor for sexual identity then he nurtures and protects this identity in a way that few straight men can.
Even if he were gay (which we know he isn’t because he is making out with one of the team members at Johnny Rocket’s party), again I am not seeing the connection. He says “If roller derby is a metaphor for sexual identity…”, which proves he sees gender and sex as the same thing. “short shorts”, “cheering”, “writing play books”, are all behaviors that would imply gender, because someone cheers does not mean they have sex witha certain type of person. I would say this point above all else discredits this argument a great deal.
[Playbooks & Jeanshorts, The End All To Be All]
Then there is “Hot Tub” Johnny Rocket, the announcer. He is the epitome of over-sexualized, aggressive machismo. Lesbians fearing rejection hate what he epitomizes, and he is predictably and harshly torn down. He is laughed off when he wants to join the ladies in the hot tub; his appeals to the audience for dates seem unsuccessful, at best. The last name “Rocket” makes it more than obvious that he represents a penis, an impotent one.
I wouldn’t entirely disagree with this (anymore than i do agree with it), although he isn’t aggressive in a violent way, moreso in the annoying “I want to get laid way”, which is important to note. I think the author is missing the point that the film is about women finding themselves and “Being their own hero”. It isn’t about Johnny getting laid. I did suggest earlier that the coach was getting some action at the party though, but if there is any metaphor, I would suggest that it is Johnny (who is sleezy), getting turned down because he is a dog who seemingly would take advantage of women (and only want them for sex). Is it wrong to reject this notion? I don’t think so.
There is bunch more to the article, you should all read it. I don’t want to completely discredit it, but I think there is some major collisions with social factors that are ignored as well as the lack of distinction between gender and sex(uality), which I think in this case IS important because some of the things he is basing his analysis on are factors of gender, which do not imply sexuality. I suppose you could make the argument that because the movie does use some of these stereotypes of gender (and gender is usually associated with sexuality), that these points do ring true, but this blog is about analyzing gender (with some tendency to try and separate it from sexuality based on the fact that they are NOT mutually exclusive). There are some valid points in the article, and maybe young lesbians did view the movie that way, but I think you would have to reach down VERY deep to get these conclusions, but it does seem that Heather Hogan in her article “I See Gay People“, agrees. The article also talks about Hannah Montana being a metaphor for lesbian-hood. Although I don’t think that these metaphors CANNOT be see, I think you see what you want, which isn’t a bad thing, but I wouldn’t really put it up on Psychology Today. Heather, who writes for a Logo blog probably sees these metaphors in a lot of everyday movies/music/tv (as I do with gender-related materials, which is what drew me to Whip It, the positive female characters that break traditional gender stereotypes).
(Last point, I promise!)
Like I said, i’m not saying this ISN’T underlying in the film, , but if it was supposed to be there, it wasn’t strong enough (although Heather suggests Jeremy’s analysis supports that “lesbians can feel uplifted, and straight people can feel unthreatened”, but if you look at roller derby in general, the women are not hiding behind anything, they are gender-breakers by nature, so why be “in the closet” (if Bliss felt that way, she could have been herself with the women, but she never did anything that would suggest or imply that). If you want Hell on Wheels you get another perspective of how blunt and passionate these women were, and even if you go to the Maine Roller Derby website, they are very honest with who they are (and this is Maine!) ::
- Moms, girlfriends, wives, and joyously single women
- Straight girls, gay girls, and anything in between
- Loud-mouthed firecrackers and quiet, reserved badasses
- The list goes on and on…
So, either this was a MISS on the part of Drew Barrymore to disregard this inherent nature of roller derby women and to not realize that if Bliss was a lesbian, she would have come out OR she was just a teenager finding herself, her identity, with a bunch of women who broke gender tradition (and some of them WERE lesbian, go figure). You decide, but I know which one I am picking.
We love some good satire at here Gender Relations, which is why the other nights Daily Show had a great segment about men losing their status and power here in America. Samantha Bee goes head to head with sociologist, Dr. Warren Farrell, and I think she does a great job. Her expression of traditional masculinity (the hunting at the end being the best example) against the men’s expression (which seems very unmasculine) shows a very interesting dynamic of men losing power, and how they choose to act..
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