As some of you know, one of the new things that Linette and I had at the Shadow Art Fair was a hand-painted limited edition poster that I made on the subject of Drew Barrymore and the film she’s making here in Ypsi. I sold quite a few of them, which was cool, but, more importantly – and I hadn’t considered this when I thought the idea up - it made a lot of people stop and talk with me about Barrymore and her film who probably wouldn’t have otherwise. Among those who stopped were a few members of the Detroit Derby Girls.

It seems as thought “Whip It!”, the derby-themed movie that Barrymore is shooting here, isn’t so popular with everyone on the roller derby circuit. I suppose some of that could be expected, as producers have selected some Detroit Derby Girls to be a part of the production, and not others, but my sense is that it goes a bit deeper than that. The women I talked with seemed sincere when they said that they felt as though the movie could be “bad” for their sport.

Having read the script, two of these women felt as though the film “could” do contemporary roller derby a disservice. I didn’t press either of them for a lot of detail, but the sense that I got was that roller derby was portrayed in the film as something along the lines of professional wrestling, which, if you’ve gone to see a game recently, couldn’t be further from the truth. I went and saw the Detroit Derby Girls last year, and I was impressed by their athleticism and the seriousness with which they competed. I don’t know what I was expecting going in, but I didn’t think that it would be as – well – legitimate. Sure, the girls had funny names – like Black Eyed Skeez and Honey Suckit - and the refs wore outrageous costumes, but it was, when you stripped everything else away, real. The women were really competing. And, from what I hear, that’s not so much the case in “Whip It,” which presents modern roller derby as more campy. This isn’t an exact quote, but one of the women told me that they were afraid that the movie might set the roller derby movement, which in its current form is all about DIY female empowerment, back 30 years.

And, apparently, the casting choices made by the producers didn’t help erase any fears the derby girls might have had after reading the script. It sounds like the producers didn’t always take the best competitors we had here in Detroit to be a part of the project. They didn’t take, for instance, the athletic, full-figured women who excel at the sport. Instead, they took the smaller, more “attractive” Derby Girls to be on screen.

I think the moral of the story, if there is one, is that it sucks when Hollywood tries to make your sub-culture mass market-friendly. (I’m sure that, one day, there will be a movie about small-town bloggers, and we’ll all be portrayed as attractive, outgoing and whippet-thin.)

I should also mention that, across the board, I’ve only heard wonderful things about Ms. Barrymore. I talked with over half a dozen people on Saturday who had been in contact with her, and they all said that she was “the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being” they’d ever known in their lives… And, I should add, it wasn’t as though the derby girls I spoke with were completely against the project. They acknowledged that it was cool that the project landed here instead of in Austin. They just felt as though it was kind of a mixed blessing in that it had created rifts within their organization, and because it might hurt the public perception of their sport.

Oh, and I also sold one of my mock-hysterical “Keep Drew Barrymore Out of Ypsilanti… Our Salvation Will Not Be Found in Roller Derby” posters to a woman from LA who was in the area, shooting another film. I can’t remember the name of her project, but apparently it’s an indie with a hot up-and-coming female lead, playing an art student at UM. So, keep your eyes peeled – my poster may show up on a dorm room wall.

And, if you haven’t been to see the Detroit Derby Girls in action, I’d suggest taking in a match. (Do they call them matches?) It’s good fun for the whole family… Or, at least Clementine loved it.