Etta Maims in Boston Roller Derby

The Boston Globe profiles Boston’s all-star roller derby team, the Boston Massacre, part of an all-female league with women from all walks of life meeting on weekends to kick ass on skates. Wesleyan grad student Elizabeth Jeffrey, a.k.a. “Etta Mames”, competing alongside teammates with aliases like “EZ Bake Shovin'”, “Sugar Hits”, and “Jennasaurus Wrecks”, is among the skaters profiled:

Etta Mames “After the singer Etta James, not after the soy bean edamame” loves that roller derby gives her excuses: excuses to wear fringe, excuses to knock people over (“I’m a blocker; I just love hitting people.”), and excuses to look cool by brushing off nasty-looking injuries.

“People at work were really concerned about [my cuts], and I have sprained both of my knees, so I was on crutches for a while last fall. And everyone’s like, ‘Is that that rollerblading that you do?’ And I’m like, ‘Kind of.’ It could’ve been a lot worse, but people do tend to wonder what’s going on with me.”

She started playing almost two years ago, when she found herself out of college and bored in front of the television all day. “I was at a party, and I was like, ‘I need to do something!’ ” A friend of a friend who competed in roller derby introduced her to the sport. “It just clicked into place, and now everything else that I fit into my life has to fit around roller derby.”

Boston Globe: Four on the floor
Sent by Marianna Foos ’08