All-women\u27s flat track roller derby : gender, psychoanalysis, and meaning

For over a decade, women’s flat track roller derby has grown to reach thousands of women in various countries around the world. Through roller derby, these women are engaging in a full-contact sport that has no comparable male counterpart, making this rapidly-growing sport an interesting arena for gender and cultural research. This thesis uses ethnographic information collected from two U.S. derby teams in order to demonstrate the dynamic interplay of culture and psychology in the making of cultural and personal meaning. In so doing, this research validates the role that psychology—and specifically, psychoanalysis—can play in cultural anthropology, and demonstrates a clear means for understanding and interpreting individual models of gender