This is what a girl power movie should be. I went to see Whip It because it looked fun and was a totally Austin film (there’s something fun about sitting in the Alamo Drafthouse watching a movie where the characters go to the Drafthouse…). I discovered, though, the most genuine and life-affirming coming of age story that I have seen in a long time. The story is that of small-town Texas girl, Bliss (Ellen Page), who escapes her mother’s beauty pageant dreams for her life by entering a roller derby league. Sounds like the standard, cliched, formulaic “girl discovers herself” plot line. But Whip It acknowledges the cliche and gives the predictable a twist.
This is a film about a girl being empowered to find herself. But it does so while admitting that life is messy. You have the standard plot of restricted kid being held back by irrational parents, but it is also more than that. Bliss’s mother isn’t just a controlling mom shoving 1950s stereotypes of pageant queens down her daughter’s thoughts. She loves her kids and wants them to have more opportunities than she ever had. Bliss doesn’t pursue roller derby to rebel; she does it because she has discovered a part of herself she never knew existed. Sure, there is conflict with her family, but the take-home message is that the individual always has to exist in community as a vital part of a family. Bliss realizes that she needs her family and her friends even as she comes into her own.
What she realizes she doesn’t need is the boy. Like in any girl-grows-up movie, Bliss meets the guy, falls in love, and gets hurt. And doesn’t get back together. She realizes that she doesn’t want to be “that girl” who allows herself to be hurt by guys and who has to change who she is for them. She regrets giving everything to her boyfriend, but comes through the pain more aware of who she is and knowing that she doesn’t need a boyfriend in order to be a whole person. This isn’t a “men — who needs them?” message, but it’s a strong reminder that a woman’s worth and identity is not defined by the man she’s attached to.
I also loved that her experience in roller-derby wasn’t based on success but on being empowered by the experience. Unlike the typical guy’s sports film where the team ends up winning the state championship (and hence proving that hard work pays off blah, blah, blah…), when Bliss’s team comes in second place they don’t despair or choose to learn from their defeat or work harder next time — they break into a joyous team chant of “We’re number 2! We’re number2!” They rejoice in their accomplishment of playing the game. They were a team and they proved to themselves as women that they could do this thing. That — not winning — was what mattered. I loved it.
Whip It was all about this healthy empowerment. It was the story of a girl discovering her own strength in community. She can be fierce and powerful and good, really good, at what she does. She doesn’t need to define herself by the warped standards of this world. She can be herself. This is the sort of story that we need to hear more often. Instead of the standard plot lines of “princess in need of rescue” or “someday my prince will come” found in most girl coming of age movies, Whip It provides a realistic role model I wouldn’t mind my daughter looking up to. Instead of telling women we are defined by our bodies, our relationship with a man, our ability to compete and win, or our ability to be nice and compliant — we can hear that it’s okay to be ourselves in all of our glory and messiness.
But lest you think that Whip It is just a sappy after-school special, remember that this is a movie about roller derby. It has action, fantastic skating scenes, and tough, self-assured women all over the place. In short, it’s a fun movie that (thankfully) isn’t just drivel and fluff.
Julie Clawson is the author of Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices
