Beyond irrationality and the ultras: some notes on female English rugby union fans and the ‘feminised’ sports crowd

Abstract

Abstract

Exploring the experiences of female sport fans: A collaborative self-ethnography

“…Thus, it is important to systematically examine the female sport fan experience in order to make better-informed conclusions regarding what it means to be a sport fan. Recent work has provided support for specifically exploring the experiences of female sport fans (Ben-Porat, 2009;Crawford & Gosling, 2004;Gosling, 2007;Jones, 2008;Pope, 2011;Pope & Williams, 2011;Wedgwood, 2008).…”

“…This contextual distinction may be particularly relevant when exploring the experiences of marginalised spectator groups. Knowing the ambiguity surrounding what it means to be a sport fan and the traditional hegemonic masculine definition of sport fan culture (Pope, 2011;Pope & Williams, 2011), examining individual perceptions of female sport fan experiences may shed light on contemporary conceptualisations of sport fans.…”

“…Women attend professional sport events for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to, spending time with family, socialising with other women, supporting their partner or spouse, and sexual attraction to male sport figures (Crawford & Gosling, 2004;Dietz-Uhler et al, 2000;Wedgwood, 2008). Because some these are not the same reasons why men attend sport events, women are viewed as spectators or supporters rather than fans (Pope & Williams, 2011).…”

“It’s Supposed to be About the Love of the Game, not the Love of Aaron Rodgers’ Eyes”: Challenging the Exclusions of Women Sports Fans

“…Dichotomies are often drawn between "new consumer" fans who "buy a large volume of merchandise" and "follow sport via the mass media" (Crawford, 2004, p. 33), and more traditional fans who presumably attend matches but do not consume excessively. Women are typically absent in this literature, or are positioned as consumer fans that, through consumption, contribute to the problems of modernization and globalization (Pope & Williams, 2011). It is important to note that the voices and experiences of women as fans have more recently come to the fore in sociology and sport management literature, often with a focus on the ways in which women are marginalized as sports fans (Crawford & Gosling, 2004;Farrell, Fink & Fields, 2011;Jones, 2008;Markovits & Albertson, 2012;Pope & Williams, 2011).…”

Being women in a male preserve: an ethnography of female footballultras

“…However, in recent years, a growing number of studies on female fans have been conducted focusing on women's experiences as professional supporters (Llopis Goig, 2007;Pope, 2011;Pope & Williams, 2011;4 and appear more similar to 'micro-transgressions' (Dal Lago, 1990, p. 159) involving few people in quick scuffles than to episodes of urban guerrilla. 5 This article, after introducing the research, first considers how role and positions within the group are distributed between men and women, highlighting the permanence of a rigid division of gendered roles justified on the basis of a series of assumptions -equally diffused between male and female supporters -that portray men as 'more naturally apt' at being ultras.…”