Whip It: A great female empowerment story

Whip It is not deep. It’s not complex. It’s not going to revolutionize filmmaking. Whip It is just a great female empowerment story with a simple but strong message that’s also a lot of fun. And at a time when a lot of mainstream movies targeted at young women and girls are pushing the so-called “family values” agenda (Twilight, High School Musical…) Whip It is a breath of fresh air.

Bliss (Ellen Page) lives in Bodeen, Texas, a very small town where not much happens. Bliss’ mother (Marcia Gay Harden) wants her competing in beauty pageants, but when Bliss meets a roller derby team from Austin she finds a new passion. The world of roller derby is full of strong female characters, most notably Bliss’ teammates the Hurl Scouts (played by a great collection of actors including Kristen Wiig from SNL, Drew Barrymore, Eve, and Zoe Bell, who was a stunt double for Xena and the Bride in Kill Bill and starred in Death Proof. Real life skaters Rachel Piplica and Kristen Adolfi play the Manson Sisters, who are deaf. Juliet Lewis plays the team’s main competition). There are male characters, but most of them are usually being made fun of. This is a film about being your own hero and finding strength among other strong women. It’s pretty rare to see a movie where most of the characters are female that’s not an exploitation film made for the male gaze. It’s also rare to see such a kick-ass cast full of great female actors playing empowered women. Sadly the cast is still mostly white.

I really appreciated the relationship between Bliss and her mother. There is serious conflict, and at one point Bliss tells her mother she doesn’t want to be part of beauty pageants that encourage a “psychotic ’50s ideal of womanhood.” But both characters really do care about and want to support each other – Bliss would have stopped participating in pageants long ago if she didn’t care about her mom’s happiness. Neither of Bliss’ parents are depicted as thin stereotypes of mean parents – they even enjoy having sex with each other. There’s a nice inter-generational message about younger and older women both supporting each other’s dreams, reinforced by Kristen Wiig’s character Maggie Mayhem, who has a child of her own and plays a bit of a mentor to Bliss.

My biggest problem with the movie was the main romantic plot line, which felt out of place given so much of the film shows women who are strong without needing men’s validation. Is there a rule that Ellen Page has to lose her (straight) virginity in every movie she’s in? I will say I was happy with how this part of the story ended. But I was much more interested in the friendship between Bliss and Pash (Alia Shawkat, Maeby from Arrested Development!).

I was surprised by the lack of queer representation in the film (the scene with Eve in the hot tub is not enough, as her character’s sexuality is only implied). The roller derby scene seemed like a place where queer folks would feel comfortable. There are depictions of multiple heterosexual relationships in the film, so leaving out queer relationships is an obvious omission. One of my friends, who is queer, told me he was surprised there weren’t a lot of queer folks in our local roller derby scene. I’d be curious to hear from folks involved in roller derby about what the community’s actually like.

Whip It is Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, and I’m happy her first movie is so overtly about female empowerment. Hollywood is very much a boy’s club so it’s great to be able to support a female director. Whip It is a fun flick with pretty good politics for a mainstream movie. I’d recommend it as a good time at the movies with any young budding feminists you know. Whip It opens in theaters today.