“Roller Derby As a Secular Alternative to Religion”, 2022-01-03 (; backlinks):
Drawing on [2.5 years of] interviews with [n = 20] skaters on teams from all over the country in the Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby Association (WFTDA), this article argues that roller derby can be viewed as a secular alternative to religion for its participants.
Following et al 2016’s argument that social and cultural change has led to a change in the religious ‘competition’ regime which has resulted in changes to the nature of both intra-religious competition and religious-secular competition so that religious groups now find themselves competing with secular leisure activities.
This article finds support for this theory: that roller derby functions as a secular competitor to religion in the lives of these skaters in 3 key ways:
roller derby participants make a large investment of time, energy, money, and physical well-being into their sport;
roller derby does, in fact, satisfy most if not all the individual needs traditionally satisfied by religion as identified by et al 2016; and,
participation in roller derby does conflict with individuals’ formal religious involvement.