Writing resistance in roller derby: making the case for auto/ethnographic writing in feminist leisure research.

TLDR: The use of auto/ethnography in leisure studies has been limited to a few key articles as discussed by the authors, but it has been explored in a wide range of leisure studies, including women's roller derby.

Abstract: IntroductionIn this article I bring writing, as method, to the fore of feminist leisure research. In doing so I examine the concept of resistance in the contemporary version of womens roller derby. I argue that this form of auto/ethnography can be taken up as a as a way of demonstrating "what the ideas of reading, writing, and text might contribute to social and cultural analysis" (Game, 1991, p. 3). Belonging and friendship are key themes in feminist leisure research (Gibson, Berdychevsky, & Bell, 2012; Glover & Parry, 2008), yet the experiences of the researcher and those who have "not belonged" have been marginal in these studies (for notable exceptions see Axelsen, 2009; Olive & Thorpe, 2011). And so my task has been to bring these experiences, and their related affects, into feminist leisure research as a way of revealing what is not often voiced in the field and as an example of writing women's bodies through relations of affect. This type of work is limited in the field of leisure studies broadly. Yet there are opportunities to question the relations of power that are so often taken for granted, both within the institutional setting of the university and within the leisure spaces occupied by women. Taking an auto/ethnographic approach to research makes explicit the multiplicities of identity that need to be negotiated in this marginal space. I am a researcher, a feminist, a participant. I am also a student and a writer. Through the use of personal narrative, my writing opposes singularity and the positivist assumption of a singular truth (Rinehart, 2005, p. 500) and in doing so moves away from debates about agency and structure to think differently about academic writing, resistance and empowerment in leisure research.To the question "What is auto/ethnography?" Ellis responds, "research, writing, story, and method that connect the autobiographical and personal to the cultural, social, and political" (2004, p. xix). Auto/ethnography and roller derby go well together. Both are risky, at times painful, at times immensely satisfying, and both allow the participant to know more about themselves, those around them, and the broader society they live in. Both roller derby and auto/ ethnography are "in progress." Roller derby is a "new," albeit revived version of an older sport, and there are several ways the sport is being played with different rules, governing bodies and philosophies. Auto/ethnography too can be understood and practiced in multiple ways. There is "no canned method" (Rinehart, 2005, p. 501) for writing auto/ethnographic research. This type of writing can be used as a mediation of affect to explore notions of "resistance" and "belonging" that are so often tied up with "alternative" sports and leisure practices (Rinehart & Sydnor, 2003). At the same time, I demonstrate the power relations at play for those of us, like myself, at the margins of academic research, and the potential of this marginal position to enable different and multiple notions of "researcher" and "feminist" identities. Masculine experiences (in leisure, the academy, and society more broadly) have been represented as the universal norm, marginalising women's experiences and identities (Irigaray, 1993, 2007). Scholars of feminist leisure studies have implicitly and explicitly sought to change this, bringing women's experiences to the fore and it is to these debates that I add my contribution.The use of auto/ethnography in leisure studies has been limited to a few key articles. In the UK journal Leisure Studies, I uncovered nine articles with "auto ethnography" listed as one of their key words. And in Henderson and Gibson's (2013) recent integrative review they found 9% of articles with a feminist leisure focus used auto/ethnography or ethnography. I do not aim to map out occurrences of the use of auto/ethnography in the wider literature (see Anderson & Austin, 2011 for an overview of auto-ethnography in leisure studies more broadly), but simply wish to point out the lack of research within the key leisure studies journals internationally. …