Drinking with the derby girls: Exploring the hidden ethnography in research of women’s flat track roller derby

Abstract

This paper explores Blackman’s concept of ‘hidden ethnography’ with respect to drinking alcohol by and with participants during ethnographic research of a women’s flat track roller derby league. A brief review of the positive and negative consequences of drinking alcohol for the research process pays specific attention to the potential consequences for research participants and the researcher. Following this, the researcher reveals elements of the hidden ethnography of this project, and explores how drinking by and with women’s flat track roller derby skaters contributed to the development of understanding and knowledge about this social world, about women’s flat track roller derby as a contemporary women-only social formation, and about women onlyness.