Pick up a copy of this week’s New York Press and you’ll see the ANP gumline in all its glistening glory.

Jerry Portwood, the Arts & Entertainment Editor, clearly gets it when he writes:

(Amateur Female Jello Wrestling founder Dana) Sterling has successfully created a space that gives women permission to forget the hassle of deflecting criticism for their bodies’ inadequacies and regress to a time when they felt comfortable being ridiculous.

Of course, by now all y’all are intimately familiar with the fact that I always feel comfortable being ridiculous.

An excerpt from the article:

After losing all her matches (on purpose) in January, ANP decided to return for a second match—although she did have her doubts.

She was feeling “moody and bitchy,” she says, but as a marketing executive at The Bank, she doesn’t get many excuses to suit up and get slippery with a dozen other women. Most days, she’s like other corporate stiffs: sitting in a cubicle, making PowerPoint presentations, working with a sales team. But tonight she doesn’t have to think about shareholders, instead she sheds all inhibitions and becomes The Thaigrr (her mother is Thai and she used to be into the riot grrl scene, she explains). Assuming a brutish, uneducated persona, she speaks with a stereotypical Asian accent and growls; the audience growls back in support.

Unlike many of the others participating this evening, ANP is extremely athletic. She’s 5 foot 10 and currently on an urban basketball league and was on the varsity track and crew team in college. “The kinds of women that are involved here, they were the ones wearing black combat boots and Manic Panic hair dye. This might be a way for them to be a part of something athletic,” she says. “I’m not trying to cultivate this personality of a weirdo. When I heard it was available, and I wouldn’t have to pay for it? I had to do it; it sounded like so much fun.”

But that doesn’t mean that her friends and colleagues don’t look at her like she’s crazy. “My boss said, ‘I thought when you were telling me you were Jell-O wrestling, it was like you were saying you were going to be invisible next week.’ They think it’s bizarre, but how many other opportunities am I going to have to do something this fun?”

Read Jerry Portwood’s full article at:

GIRL FIGHT! The rise of fringe contact sports — for women, by women

Update: Here are my very minor context additions given the difficulty of interviewing and intent-capturing in an otherwise great piece:

• “cultivate the personality of a weirdo” context: I don’t need to cultivate squat. Being a weirdo comes naturally.
• The comment regarding the girls wearing combat boots:
• I wore combat boots in high school
• I rocked some Manic Panic (pink!)
• I was mentioning Jello Wrestling as a great way to let “non-athletic” women enjoy and experience an athletic activity. Celebrating sport and physicality for those who may otherwise have been turned off to it — much in the way that the woman in the roller derby party says she couldn’t deal with a coach telling her what to do, etc.
• Was also quoted incorrectly, because that’s not quite what I said… I started it with “Perhaps the kinds of women …” and I was referring to all the fringe sport grrrls, not just the jello wrestlers.

All this addenda because my little sister just informed me that I come off as “bitchy” in the article. Shit! Moody and bitchy, okay.

But judgmental bitchy! That just cannot stand.