Being a daughter is tough, and so is being a mom. It can be hard for mothers and daughters to relate to each other during the challenges and changes of adolescence, and Hollywood has a way of focusing on the struggles rather than successes. But life doesn’t always look like it does in the movies.
Whip It! is a movie about 17-year-old Bliss Cavendish’s conflict between pleasing her mother, a former beauty pageant queen, and pursuing her own interests. Bliss’ newfound passion is an ultra-aggressive contact sport called Roller Derby, a game where a team of five girls with names like “Smashley Simpson” and "Eva Destruction" race around a circular track on roller skates and battle each other for points. Playing as her alter ego “Babe Ruthless,” Bliss discovers her own physical and emotional strength, but also realizes the major differences between the person she is becoming and the person her mother wants her to be.
A caring mother and devoted wife, Mrs. Cavendish is convinced that her daughter’s looks are the key to her happiness and success. She insists that Bliss participates in pageants and is furious when she learns Bliss has joined a Roller Derby team. Instead of trying to understand her daughter’s interest, Mrs. Cavendish forbids Bliss to continue skating.
How often have you dealt with a situation like this in your own life? As we get older and develop our own, unique personalities there is bound be conflict with loved ones, who are looking out for our best interest. This is especially true for mothers who have a strong interest in the lives of their daughters. When we don’t communicate honestly, we are robbing ourselves of the opportunity to have happy and healthy relationships. Mrs. Cavendish’s fear of what her daughter might not achieve kept her from realizing how happy and inspired Bliss was. On the other hand, Bliss’ belief that her mother wouldn’t understand her choices led to her keep secrets and exclude her mother from an important part of her life. What both mother and daughter need is the courage to share their honest feelings with each other and enough of an open mind to see the value in each other’s point of view.
As young women, having female role models who support us is very important, so we need to be careful not to exclude the ones who are there for us unconditionally (like mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and aunts) just because we think they won’t understand. As Whip It! progresses, we see how Bliss’ new passion forces her mother to reconsider how she relates to her daughter and encourages Bliss to be more honest about who she is. More than just a roller-skating story, Whip It! is to be commended for bringing to the screen a complicated yet honest mother-daughter relationship that many of us can relate to.