Tara is just like any other 26-year-old woman. She’s got a corporate job in Toronto, likes creme brulee, and drinks martinis that match her eye shadow.
If you passed her on the street you would never guess that she has a violent alter ego named Betty Clock’er. Much less that she gets paid to let Betty loose every so often.
You see, Tara is no ordinary 26-year-old. She’s a professional pillow fighter and one of the 25 proud members of the newly formed Pillow Fight League.
But don’t let the name deceive you. The PFL is certainly not for sissies.
Conceived by commissioner Stacey Case while on a band tour in Austria back in 2004, the PFL is essentially a women-only, XFL-style hybrid version of boxing and wrestling. In front of hundreds of people, two fighters are given six minutes on a small mat to duke it out in pretty much whatever way they deem fit. The only caveat ““ every move must be made with a regulation PFL-issued pillow.
The Toronto-based league has become a huge draw for women who all have one thing in common ““ they love to fight.
But that’s about where the similarities end. The league has drawn women from all walks of life ““ waitresses and writers, analysts and art students.
For Zoe Nickerson (aka Sister Resistor), the league is simply an extension of her day job as a special effects technician for movies including “Dawn of the Dead” and “Silent Hill.”
“I set things on fire and blow shit up,” she said.
Although PFL rules forbid lighting other fighters on fire or blowing them up, Nickerson’s fighting style ““ which is mostly legal ““ has earned her the title of League’s Dirtiest Fighter.
“I guess I have a really low anger threshold,” Nickerson said. “I use my pillow like a sledgehammer. I try to bludgeon the crap out of my opponent.”
One of her semi-legal moves is to wrap the pillow around her opponent’s back, stick her free arm between the victim’s legs, grab the pillow, and use it like a swing to drop her opponent like a ton of bricks. Sometimes she gets away with it.
Nickerson’s bruising style has led to more disqualifications than finishes, but that all comes with the territory. Sometimes a fighter just has to take things into her own hands ““ like one time in a fight against Kilkelly that got a little hairy.
“It was a strategic fight,” Nickerson said. “She got me in a choke hold and wouldn’t release me. That got me mad so I decided to grab the ref by his throat and take him to the scorers’ table.”
Tactics such as those are usually frowned upon but it’s not like the fighters are without a conscience. For Betty Clock’er, who accidently sent one opponent to the hospital with bruised kidneys, injuries are just an unfortunate by-product.
“When I found out (she went to the hospital), I spent three hours crying and listening to country music,” Clock’er said.
Nickerson could certainly relate to that as one of the fighters who others definitely gun for. She insists she’s never been seriously injured, only bumps and bruises.
“One time Lynn Somnia bounced my face off the floor,” Nickerson said. “I had a bruise on my face that looked like a moustache.”
As evidenced by the face bouncing and moustache bruising, when these fighters are on the mat they hold nothing back. With the exception of senior official and referee Matt Mullen yelling “fight like a girl!” to start each throwdown, nothing is staged. The fighters even train in the arts of stand-up fighting, take-downs and grappling with trainers such as former wrestler Synn and boxer Tommy Morrison. Tell any one of them that pillow fighting is for girls and you can say goodbye to some teeth.
However, for some of the fighters, keeping their pillow fighting career separate from the rest of their life is a tall order.
“I’m still struggling with that,” said Clock’er, who did not want her full name to be published. “I’ve only told my supervisor at work because of the time off I need.”
Because you’re afraid of co-workers finding out about your alter ego?
“No, not at all,” Clock’er said. “I just don’t want to talk about it all the time. It gets boring.”
Pillow fighting, and the community that’s built when they’re not smashing each other’s faces, is a huge part of these fighters’ lives.
“If I could be a full-time pillow fighter, I’d be all over that,” Nickerson said. “I will stick with the PFL until I’m too old. These are the best bunch of girls I’ve ever had the honor and privilege of hanging out with.”
Just don’t call them sissies.
E-mail Feder at jfeder@media.ucla.edu if you sleep on a PFL-issue pillow at night.