Its rare to see a hot, young sexy woman really beat the crap out of someone, especially on A & E. But its something that professional rollergirl Miss Conduct and the rest of The Holy Rollers do every week. Now you watch the entire first season of Rollergirls on DVD. Miss Conduct was a great interview and now she has her own personal website up where you see the costumes she has made, conventions shes modeled for and a live video of her surgery.
Buy the DVD of Rollergirls
Daniel Robert Epstein: What are you up to today?
Miss Conduct: I am going to do this interview with you and then head on down to the convention center and help the rest of the kids move the track. Were moving it today from downtown Austin up to North Austin so we can have practice tonight. Therell be about 20 of us there and it will probably take about ten hours, so thats my day off.
DRE: What did you think when you first found out there was going to be a reality show around the team?
MC: Like all the rest of us I had questions like, Whats your angle? Why are you here? Do you want to exploit what were doing? Do you want to uphold what were doing? Not one of us just wanted to jump on the chance to do the reality show. We went through months of pretty extensive meetings and had to reach a middle ground. Were all really glad that we had the experience because its brought a lot of attention to the sport.
DRE: Is it a good thing because it could bring in a lot of posers that you could knock on their ass?
MC: You cant get into the sport unless you have what it takes. A couple years ago we were in the position of taking anybody but the girls that come in now are up the challenge. Every year, with these new recruits, the veterans think, Oh man, I better start working harder because every year the game gets harder. The girls who want to audition have to be really tough to even be thinking about doing it now. When we first started you could see yourself getting in there and now, its scary to watch. The few girls brave enough to try out are badass and they keep our game awesome.
DRE: How did the reality show cameras being there change the dynamic?
MC: Man its interesting. I actually expected to see a lot more blood last year. The season before the cameras came around we had so many gnarly injuries. There was one game where five girls from the same team got carried out on stretchers. I expected everyone to want to be just as ugly as they could be in front of the cameras to get their names out there. But I think we played more legally. The games were amazing last season but I think in the back of our minds we wanted to represent the league well. That doesnt mean censoring ourselves by any means but I think we played a little bit more according to the rules. Comparing it to the games this season, were fully off the hook again and a little more violent.
DRE: Would people wait to do their hits in front of the cameras?
MC: No, you cant. Every split second matters when youre out there on that track. If youre waiting to throw a hit in front of a camera, youre risking losing a point for your team and no ones willing to do that for anything or anybody. Every single point matters. You can win the championship by one point; no one is going to alter the game for the camera.
DRE: Is your style on the TV a persona or is thats who you are?
MC: Thats my lifestyle. You just need to walk into my boat where I live and just took a look around. Youll see. Obviously the skating and the knocking heads around and me being in pain is roller derby. But as far as apparel goes, I think Ive been recycling my clothes since I moved to Austin. [laughs] You can tell by the bad stitches and the tattered and torn look to everything I have. I play hard in my clothes. I treasure them, theyre my keepsakes. Thats me.
DRE: I read you have a yacht.
MC: It was a yacht. I say it is a boat because I call it a land boat. Its from the 60s and it originally slept nine people. It has an RV style stove, oven and its got a few small countertops which I plan on making it a little bigger. I vaulted the back ceilings up about nine feet and extended it to make the boat longer by about four feet. I have a queen size bed in there.
DRE: So youre not a millionaire.
MC: [laughs] Are you kidding me? I live like a hobo. Last year during the filming of Rollergirls, I didnt even have a roof. I had mosquito netting up for my walls. Im actually getting ready to rip off the roof Ive got on it now and put a real nice one up in the next couple of weeks. I didnt have a door last year but now Ive got two doors to the boat and a roof over my bed deterring the rain from running on me while I sleep.
DRE: Do you consider what you do in the roller derby a feminist act?
MC: No, I dont think so. Every girls going to be in it for something different. Although I dont consider it to be feminist, its definitely very liberating. What we do out there by no means subscribes to any of the notions that feminists would like to fight against, like sexy equals weak, and cleavage equals selling out, blah, blah. None of us pay attention to any of those notions that were given to us by the predominantly male society over the years. We go out there, we dress how we want to dress, we play as hard as we possibly can and both of those elements shine. You can love it or hate it for either of those things but I think thats why we play it.
DRE: Have you met girls that say they feel empowered after watching you kick the crap out of people?
MC: Oh hell yeah. The most amazing thing for me that came out of the show was all the emails from women, teenagers and even little girls. They sent me these really sincere lengthy emails about what they got from the show and how much they have been inspired by us. At the championship bout, so many people came from all over the country and I met some of the sweetest little girls that looked up with these eyes, like they were looking up at their heroes. We all deserve to have women to look up to and not a lot of us have had women idols. When I was a kid I looked up to Mr. T and Hulk Hogan [laughs]. It makes people realize that you can be a woman and you can be as strong and as rowdy and as explosive as any of these men. Little girls have an amazing amount of women to look up to now so Im proud and happy that we got to show that on mainstream TV. Even if therell be no second season, for one season it definitely caught the eyes of a lot of people.
DRE: Do you meet guys that want to knock them on their ass?
MC: [laughs] I bitch slapped a couple people in the crowd that have asked for it. Typically I wouldnt because thats it is little bit weird to come up and say that, but if you catch me at the right time [laughs]. Actually I re-broke somebodys nose in the crowd by accident and they liked it [laughs]. I think its probably one of the things out there that people think guys wouldnt have the guts to say while were at a game.
DRE: Have you heard of SuicideGirls before?
MC: Oh yeah, Ive been to the site many times.
DRE: Whats your opinion of the site?
MC: When it first came out I thought it was a really cool idea. I appreciate the aspect of more radical type chicks getting out there and showing their beauty. I also appreciate the fact that theres a strong variety of chicks on that website. They all equally have their sex appeal and I think thats awesome. They are all exotic and uniquely loud girls willing to share with online viewers what makes them so sexy. They are a part of SuicideGirls because they want to be. There loud proud and doing what they want to do. That's a freedom that all women should feel, so rock on.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Buy the DVD of Rollergirls
Daniel Robert Epstein: What are you up to today?
Miss Conduct: I am going to do this interview with you and then head on down to the convention center and help the rest of the kids move the track. Were moving it today from downtown Austin up to North Austin so we can have practice tonight. Therell be about 20 of us there and it will probably take about ten hours, so thats my day off.
DRE: What did you think when you first found out there was going to be a reality show around the team?
MC: Like all the rest of us I had questions like, Whats your angle? Why are you here? Do you want to exploit what were doing? Do you want to uphold what were doing? Not one of us just wanted to jump on the chance to do the reality show. We went through months of pretty extensive meetings and had to reach a middle ground. Were all really glad that we had the experience because its brought a lot of attention to the sport.
DRE: Is it a good thing because it could bring in a lot of posers that you could knock on their ass?
MC: You cant get into the sport unless you have what it takes. A couple years ago we were in the position of taking anybody but the girls that come in now are up the challenge. Every year, with these new recruits, the veterans think, Oh man, I better start working harder because every year the game gets harder. The girls who want to audition have to be really tough to even be thinking about doing it now. When we first started you could see yourself getting in there and now, its scary to watch. The few girls brave enough to try out are badass and they keep our game awesome.
DRE: How did the reality show cameras being there change the dynamic?
MC: Man its interesting. I actually expected to see a lot more blood last year. The season before the cameras came around we had so many gnarly injuries. There was one game where five girls from the same team got carried out on stretchers. I expected everyone to want to be just as ugly as they could be in front of the cameras to get their names out there. But I think we played more legally. The games were amazing last season but I think in the back of our minds we wanted to represent the league well. That doesnt mean censoring ourselves by any means but I think we played a little bit more according to the rules. Comparing it to the games this season, were fully off the hook again and a little more violent.
DRE: Would people wait to do their hits in front of the cameras?
MC: No, you cant. Every split second matters when youre out there on that track. If youre waiting to throw a hit in front of a camera, youre risking losing a point for your team and no ones willing to do that for anything or anybody. Every single point matters. You can win the championship by one point; no one is going to alter the game for the camera.
DRE: Is your style on the TV a persona or is thats who you are?
MC: Thats my lifestyle. You just need to walk into my boat where I live and just took a look around. Youll see. Obviously the skating and the knocking heads around and me being in pain is roller derby. But as far as apparel goes, I think Ive been recycling my clothes since I moved to Austin. [laughs] You can tell by the bad stitches and the tattered and torn look to everything I have. I play hard in my clothes. I treasure them, theyre my keepsakes. Thats me.
DRE: I read you have a yacht.
MC: It was a yacht. I say it is a boat because I call it a land boat. Its from the 60s and it originally slept nine people. It has an RV style stove, oven and its got a few small countertops which I plan on making it a little bigger. I vaulted the back ceilings up about nine feet and extended it to make the boat longer by about four feet. I have a queen size bed in there.
DRE: So youre not a millionaire.
MC: [laughs] Are you kidding me? I live like a hobo. Last year during the filming of Rollergirls, I didnt even have a roof. I had mosquito netting up for my walls. Im actually getting ready to rip off the roof Ive got on it now and put a real nice one up in the next couple of weeks. I didnt have a door last year but now Ive got two doors to the boat and a roof over my bed deterring the rain from running on me while I sleep.
DRE: Do you consider what you do in the roller derby a feminist act?
MC: No, I dont think so. Every girls going to be in it for something different. Although I dont consider it to be feminist, its definitely very liberating. What we do out there by no means subscribes to any of the notions that feminists would like to fight against, like sexy equals weak, and cleavage equals selling out, blah, blah. None of us pay attention to any of those notions that were given to us by the predominantly male society over the years. We go out there, we dress how we want to dress, we play as hard as we possibly can and both of those elements shine. You can love it or hate it for either of those things but I think thats why we play it.
DRE: Have you met girls that say they feel empowered after watching you kick the crap out of people?
MC: Oh hell yeah. The most amazing thing for me that came out of the show was all the emails from women, teenagers and even little girls. They sent me these really sincere lengthy emails about what they got from the show and how much they have been inspired by us. At the championship bout, so many people came from all over the country and I met some of the sweetest little girls that looked up with these eyes, like they were looking up at their heroes. We all deserve to have women to look up to and not a lot of us have had women idols. When I was a kid I looked up to Mr. T and Hulk Hogan [laughs]. It makes people realize that you can be a woman and you can be as strong and as rowdy and as explosive as any of these men. Little girls have an amazing amount of women to look up to now so Im proud and happy that we got to show that on mainstream TV. Even if therell be no second season, for one season it definitely caught the eyes of a lot of people.
DRE: Do you meet guys that want to knock them on their ass?
MC: [laughs] I bitch slapped a couple people in the crowd that have asked for it. Typically I wouldnt because thats it is little bit weird to come up and say that, but if you catch me at the right time [laughs]. Actually I re-broke somebodys nose in the crowd by accident and they liked it [laughs]. I think its probably one of the things out there that people think guys wouldnt have the guts to say while were at a game.
DRE: Have you heard of SuicideGirls before?
MC: Oh yeah, Ive been to the site many times.
DRE: Whats your opinion of the site?
MC: When it first came out I thought it was a really cool idea. I appreciate the aspect of more radical type chicks getting out there and showing their beauty. I also appreciate the fact that theres a strong variety of chicks on that website. They all equally have their sex appeal and I think thats awesome. They are all exotic and uniquely loud girls willing to share with online viewers what makes them so sexy. They are a part of SuicideGirls because they want to be. There loud proud and doing what they want to do. That's a freedom that all women should feel, so rock on.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 25 of 28 COMMENTS
coleen:
I'm so glad I found this article, I've been looking for something on here talking about Roller Girls and TXRD for the longest time on here. I can't wait to move back to Austin and go to more games, I'm dying here.
melx:
Great interview, I've never seen the show but now I really want to.