Sophia Douglas
Final Paper
SOCL 325
Women in Men Dominated Sports
“You run like a girl.” “Oh man up!” “Are you really going to let a girl beat you?” These
are just a few of the slanders heard by men to men, but what about the slanders that have been
said by women to women? Better yet the slanders said by women to men. In this paper I will be
discussing the differences in the United Kingdoms’ soccer women fans actions between different
teams the United States Women’s Soccer team, the United States’ targeted football fans, the
psychology of college football fans, and women in precollege sports.
To kick things off, in an article by K. W. Jones, thirty-eight different women who were
present at various UK football matches were interviewed to see how they reacted to the different
English men’s behavior at these matches. These women would often downplay their gender
identities to reinforce their typically fan identities. The abusive or insulting behavior that was
made by male fans was often responded in one of three ways by female fans. They would either
express their disgust to the abuse made by male fans, downplay sexism, or they would simply
embrace gender stereotypes by simply arguing femininity was an inconsistency with the
supposedly “authentic” values of fandom and that abuse was a fundamental part of sport. K. W.
Jones suggested that possibly examining those of the nontraditional male fans while using a
similar framework would have been helpful and yield some of the results.
Through an anonymous online survey, 3,500 UK football fans and the professionals that
are also involved. This survey was intended to see how those involved view gay footballers.
From this survey, it was found that there was a decrease in homophobia within the football
fandom and that the fans have blamed agents and clubs for the lack of support, openness, and
challenging the football’s governing organizations to oppose the culture of secrecy surrounding
gay players.
Switching over to the United States side now, the Women’s Soccer team, notably one of
the most newsworthy teams back in 2019 for multiple reasons. First of which they incredibly
won the Women’s World Cup, only which fifty-three U.S. adult fans attended. Secondly, Megan
Rapione’s stance when she knelt during the national anthem to show her protest racist police
violence. Thirdly, Rapione also declined the offer former President Trump sent out to the team
inviting them to the White House, in celebration of their tremendous win. Fourth and finally,
Jaelene Hinkle’s declining to wear the teams LGBT jersey and her comments opposition to
marriage equality. From the fifty-three fans that attended their World Cup game, all of them
were interviewed on the Women’s teams political expressions to make sense of how fans make
sense of women athletes and their political engagements. This article, by Cavalier and Allison,
discusses how there is a new wave of political advocacy that is now often led by women.
The NFL is one of the most popular sports in the U.S., with that being said, they have
some of the most dedicated fans here. There are about 46% of women that make up the NFL
fanbase. The Carolina Panthers Twitter page was examined over a two-month period. Their posts
were geared more towards men. On the rare occasion, there were posts that were geared towards
their women fans, but they were framed in a more stereotypical way. Those tweets were seen
promoting the cheerleading team. In this article, by Grace and Muller, it is concluded by the
authors recommending the social media strategies for the NFL and other major sporting leagues
to embrace womanhood and build trust in their viable stakeholders.
What is manlier, football or figure skating? Personally, they’re both manly in their own
way. Both athletes that participate in these sports are extremely agile, strong, fast, and have great
reaction times. So why is it that men figure skaters are looked down on when compared to
football players? Could it be that there are more openly gay figure skaters than football players?
In the article written by Lee and Cunningham, it is discussed that the prejudice against LGBT
individuals can affect attitudes and behaviors towards sports. There is more of a focus on how
the sexual prejudice among sporting fans in this article. Due to this focus, it brings in a study on
how sexual prejudice, sexism, gender, and identification are associated with the two sports
(men’s figure skating and football). There are multiple perspectives seen in this study as well,
such as sexual stigma and prejudice theory, and theory of homohysteria. In a questionnaire that
was sent out to 150 students, 52 women and 98 men, that attend a large Southwestern, public
university was filled out and collected. This questionnaire was consistent to the study’s
hypotheses, in which indicated that sexual prejudice held a positive connotation with U.S.
football, but a negative connotation towards men’s figure skating.
When discussing one’s manliness, the social psychology of a fans’ literature in
correlation with feminist sport literature on hegemonic masculinity. The author of this article,
Tripp, researched the two types of literature in order to attempt to bridge this gap in the athletic
world. This was done in order to better understand how fans connect with the masculine displays
of players. There are also references to how they attempt to reformulate masculinity by
strategizing events, especially the roles of the referees.
Finally, the last article is discussing the psychological importance of precollege sport
participation in women. This article, by Shaffer and Wittes, discusses how when young women
start participating in sports at a younger age, they begin to have a more positive body image,
enjoyment of sports, physical competence, gender role orientation, and a higher self-esteem. A
sample was taken from two hundred and forty-five collegiate women athletes, with a mean age
of 19.9 years old. They reported on their enjoyment of their sports and the benefits derived from
the athletic pursuits. The results from the following survey were consistent with past research.
Women students’ who engaged in precollege sport participation were a modest predictor of their
self-esteem.
As a former athlete myself, I decided to write this paper on this topic due to how much of
an impact sport have had on my life. Not only have the sports I have participated in have an
impact, but also those who would come to watch and work the games. There have been multiple
comments from grown men and other fans in the stands either about me or other players while
we were playing. Most comments I have heard directed at the field have been towards referees
though, but in that case, it doesn’t help the players, it makes referees even more upset and makes
them take it out on us and our game at times.
While I was playing in college, the men’s lacrosse team would almost always put us
down, saying they were better than us just because they had more fans come out to support them.
This is the case for many men’s and women’s sports. The men’s teams get a vast majority of fans
coming out to support them while they are playing, while the women’s get a handful. This
doesn’t define how good a team is though, in the years I played, the women’s team went farther
than the men’s ever did, and it continues to be this way. In my opinion it is a ridiculous notion
that just because men are “bigger” and “stronger” than women are that they are so much better
than us, when it isn’t always the case.
In conclusion, there is a vast difference in how women are treated when it comes to
athletics, whether they are the athletes or the fans. In this paper I have discussed the differences
seen in the United Kingdom and the United States, football and soccer, football and men’s figure
skating, college football fans, the psychological aspects of sports, and how fundamentally
important it is for young women to get involved in precollege sports.
References
Jones, K. W. (2008). Female Fandom: Identity, Sexism, and Men’s Professional Football in
England. Sociology of Sport Journal, 25(4), 516–537. https://doi-
org.proxy.longwood.edu/10.1123/ssj.25.4.516
Cashmore, E., & Cleland, J. (2012). Fans, homophobia and masculinities in association football:
evidence of a more inclusive environment. British Journal of Sociology, 63(2), 370–387.
https://doi-org.proxy.longwood.edu/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2012.01414.x
Cavalier, E. S., & Allison, R. (2021). “Standing Up For What She Believes In”: U.S. Women’s
Soccer Fan Responses to the Interplay of Sport and Politics. Sociation Today, 20(2), 10–22.
Grace, A. N., & Mueller, T. S. (2019). Gender bias in sport media: a critical analysis of Twitter
content and the National Football League’s Carolina Panthers. Journal of Gender Studies, 28(3),
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https://doi-org.proxy.longwood.edu/asa_proceeding_9413.PDF
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org.proxy.longwood.edu/10.1007/s11199-006-9074-3
