Women Sport Fans

Identification, Participation, Representation

Kim Toffoletti

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317280774
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Women worldwide are making their presence felt as sport fans in rapidly increasing numbers. This book makes a distinctive and innovative contribution to the study of sport fandom by exploring the growing visibility and interest in women who follow sport. It presents the latest data on women's sport spectatorship in different regions of the world, posing new theoretical paradigms to study the globalised nature of female sport fandom.

This book goes beyond conventional approaches to analysing the practices of women sport fans. By using a critical feminist perspective to investigate cultural conditions and social contexts (including globalisation, digital networked technologies, consumerism, neoliberalism and postfeminism), it brings into view a diversity of women's voices and experiences as sport fans. It sheds new light on the power dynamics of gender, ethnicity and sexuality influencing women's participation in sport spectatorship and interrogates the ways female sport fandom is made visible through transnational media networks.

Women Sport Fans: Identification, Participation, Representation is fascinating reading for all those interested in sport and gender, the sociology of sport, or women's studies.

Chapter 1

Facts, Figures and Frameworks

Approaching the Study of Women Sport Fans

Introduction

In this chapter, I explain the contextual, conceptual and theoretical parameters of my study. I begin by defining what I take sport fandom to mean and provide a rationale for my definition. I then detail statistics on women’s attendance and viewership of sport. By briefly surveying publically available facts and figures showing patterns of women’s involvement as sport fans, I aim to demonstrate the growing attention being paid to women’s participation in sport during a period when women around the world are being encouraged to take up positions in new global economies as agentic, mobile and adaptable subjects (Harris, 2004). If, as Giulianotti and Bronwell suggest, world sport plays an important role in the making of transnational society, broadly understood as the ‘growing connectivity of individuals, groups and institutions across multiple national contexts’ (2012, p. 200), then how does this impact on women’s involvement in sport as fans? And what part might women’s sport fandom play in contributing to this process?

With sport mega-events like the FIFA World Cup reaching into new global territories such as the BRICS countries of Asia and South America, as well as Africa and the middle-east, we can point to a corresponding emphasis on detailing the sporting encounters of diverse groups of new female fans (e.g. Ben-Porat, 2009; Chiweshe, 2014; Dalpian et al., 2015; Mee, 2004). Under these circumstances, attending to questions of cultural difference is increasingly important to studies of women’s sport participation as fans. The greater attention being paid to diversity, inclusion and empowerment agendas in sport offers sporting organisations on the world stage a platform to present themselves as progressive and attentive to female sport fans’ needs and interests in a competitive global market. Reminiscent of former FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s now infamous championing of the future of football as feminine, major sporting leagues and organisations are using a range of strategies such as mission statements, commissioned reports and advisory boards to promote diversity as an organisational value, hence publically demonstrate their commitment to gender equity, diversity and inclusion agendas (see, for instance, Harrison, n.d.; International Cricket Council, n.d.; International Olympic Committee, 2016; Knoppers, Claringbould & Dortants, 2015).

From this position, I begin to critically consider in whose interests it is to envision female sport fandom as a transnational phenomenon, and how this imagining contributes to mythologies of sport as a vehicle for the championing of social good – values such as unity, empowerment and equality – within and across diverse national contexts. As international sporting organisations such as FIFA, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and sport for development programmes promote themselves as advocates for women’s greater involvement in sport globally in a variety of capacities (administrative, athletic, coaching, fandom, etc.), transnational feminist perspectives provide a framework through which to critique simplistic beliefs that women’s greater participation and visibility in sport can transform the gender status quo (Chawansky, 2012; Hayhurst, 2011; McDonald, 2015). This chapter reflects on the role transnational feminist thinking can play in critically attending to questions of diversity and difference in the study of women’s sport fandom as it is experienced, understood and imagined globally, by paying attention to the specific social, political, cultural and economic conditions informing women’s lived realities, and taking into account the intersections of gender with other vectors of difference like ethnicity, class and religion shaping women’s social circumstances locally and relative to wider global dynamics (see Ahmed, 1992; El Saadawi, 1997; Hedge, 2014; Mohanty, 2003). The overall purpose of this chapter, then, is to provide some background and context to the discussion of female sport fan experiences and representations, and to advocate for a critically informed, transnational feminist perspective in the study of women fans of sport.

Defining Sport Fandom

There is no clearly defined or universally accepted definition of sport fandom, meaning that the attributes, actions and characteristics of sport fandom are an ongoing source of considerable study and debate. Taking an inclusive approach, Antunovic and Hardin argue that the term ‘“fan” can refer to any individual who is dedicated to an object of interest’ and in the sport context this extends to individual players, clubs, teams, leagues and sports (2012, p. 308). Definitional debates around sport fandom sometimes refer to what fandom is not. For instance, it has been suggested that while the sport fan is highly likely to be a sport spectator, it is not always that case that spectators identify as fans (Ganz & Wenner, 1995; Wann, Melnick, Russell & Pease, 2001).

Sport psychology and marketing perspectives primarily emanating from the US tend to focus on measuring sport fandom by determining an individual’s level of motivation, commitment and identification, often through quantitative surveys of fan behaviour like match attendance and demonstrations of sport knowledge (Dietz-Uhler, Harrick, End & Jacquemotte, 2000; James & Ridinger, 2002). Feminist perspectives critique approaches that try to define and measure sport fandom according to specified patterns and behaviours. They argue that ‘typical’ sport fan activities are widely modelled on the actions of white, male, heterosexual subjects who have been naturalised as representative of the normative body in many sporting spaces and contexts, particularly mass spectator sport. As a result, practices that do not conform to the expectations of typical fan behaviour are ignored or devalued. Indeed, sport psychology and marketing studies measuring levels of fan commitment and identification according to gender rate women’s levels of fandom consistently lower than men’s, which is unsurprising given the criteria used to define fandom is commonly based on rituals and behaviours associated with displays of white, heterosexual masculinity (Farrell, Fink & Fields, 2011; James & Ridinger, 2002; Melnick & Wann, 2011; Wann, 1995).

Sociological accounts of fandom, such as Richard Giulianotti’s taxonomy of spectator identities, also exhibit a gender bias in terms of how fandom is defined and judged. In his attempts to categorise fandom according to the centrality of sport fandom to one’s life and ‘the particular kind of identification that spectators have toward specific clubs’ (2002, p. 30), Giulianotti identifies various fan types. What he codes as ‘hot’ forms of sport support are fans who identify closely with their team and express solidarity with their local community alongside a passionate commitment to their club (2002, p. 33). These fans are associated with a more traditional supporter type, in contrast to ‘cool’ fans, whose levels of attachment are deemed weaker, diluted by the effects of globalisation such as the deteritorialisation of cultures, flows of consumer capital, rapidly technologised networks of communication and the fragmentation of identities. The cool fan, who Giulianotti considers to be more of a ‘follower’ or ‘flaneur’, identifies with sport in market-centred terms via consumer and media engagement (Giulianotti, 2002, p. 35). Stacey Pope has argued that, while appearing gender neutral, the greater value implicitly placed on traditional forms of sport support ‘perpetuate the gendered hierarchy between male (traditional and authentic) and female (consumer and inauthentic) fandom’ (Pope, 2012, p. 94). To this I would add that ‘cool’ forms of fandom, and by association the feminine, become emblematic of the perceived problems globalisation poses for sport, namely the loss of a coherent sense of community and identity as local practices of supporting are transformed by global conjectures. Chapters 2 and 3 offer a detailed consideration of the gender implications of defining sport fandom when the practices, experiences and relationships that constitute sport fan status are defined in male terms, subsequently positioning women’s sport fandom as ‘inauthentic’, relative to a masculine standard.

Given that definitions of fandom can function to exclude and/or devalue certain expressions of sport support, I question an approach based on establishing a criteria for sport fandom and using it to evaluate women’s modes of fan identification, participation and representation. Moreover, narrow definitions of fandom cannot easily encompass or explain how individual expressions of fandom might alter over the life course in response to changes in social circumstances and how these changes are impacted by the organisation of society according to gender (for example, women’s primary responsibility for children and its impact on match attendance, as discussed in Chapter 3). Nor can static definitions account for the evolution of sport fan practices in the wake of advances in digital network technologies and the impact of global mobility on sport audiences and attachments (Hutchins & Rowe, 2013). For these reasons, I take as my starting point women’s own perceptions, practices and understandings of the sport fan experience, as detailed in empirical accounts, to guide my study. Accordingly, the book eschews a clear-cut definition of fandom, nor does it preference particular terminology – the terms fan, follower, supporter and spectator are used interchangeably throughout this book to capture the variety of practices and modes of engagement that women have with sport that comprise their fan experience. In preferencing a fluid and expansive understanding of sport fandom over a particular set of definitions, one of the aims of this book is to recognise and problematise the masculinist, heterosexist and ethnocentric assumptions inherent in definitions of sport fandom.

Facts and Figures – Women’s Participation as Fans

Sport analytics suggest that women’s sport fandom is on the rise, with changes in the gender composition of sport fan audiences documented in various surveys of match attendance and televised viewing of domestic sport leagues and international sport events. Looking to sport mega-events, FIFA figures measuring female viewership of the 2015 women’s football World Cup, hosted by Canada, showed women making up the majority of in-home television audiences in South Africa (68 per cent), Japan (52 per cent) and the Korean Republic (51 per cent) (Kantar Media, 2015, p. 19). Across other key markets for this event in Australasia, Europe and the Americas, female audiences ranged between 26 per cent (China) and 46 per cent (Canada) (Kantar Media, 2015, p. 19). Although overall more men than women watched this tournament, numbers indicate that women make up a notable share of the TV spectating audience. FIFA’s live game audience figures for the 2014 men’s World Cup in Brazil also reveal significant numbers of women spectators. While reporting that the event ‘proved more popular with men’ across the 25 countries surveyed, measurements nonetheless detail women’s presence as television viewers in countries around the world, the top percentage of women tuning in from Brazil (49 per cent), Korea Republic (48 per cent), Argentina (48 per cent), Colombia (47 per cent), Mexico (45 per cent), Japan (44 per cent) and India (43 per cent) (Kantar Media, 2014, p. 24). While mindful of the array of factors influencing these figures – both in terms of methodology (such as data collection procedures) and sociocultural factors shaping sport’s gender order (which form the basis of critique throughout this book) – I cite them here as a means of demonstrating the growing attention being paid to women’s fan participation by major sport organisations.

Although no specific measurements were provided for digital audiences according to gender in the FIFA commissioned reports, it is clear that significant attention is being paid by sport organisations and marketers alike to increased internet usage and digital content access by sport spectators on a worldwide scale (Kantar Media, 2014, 2015). As reported by The Times of India during the 2014 men’s World Cup, ‘(m)edia planners said the youth and women appeal is helping get football the traction that advertisers look for in an increasingly fragmented media landscape’ (Sharma, 2014). India presents a relatively new market in the global soccer landscape, with social media being used by spectators to share the experience of watching games by connecting with a global audience of fans. With more than 40 per cent of the Indian television audience for the 2014 men’s World Cup comprised of women, they are being singled out as a lucrative market for advertisers looking to target new audiences (Sharma, 2014).

Sport media companies also promote the idea that women’s sport fanship is taking hold across a variety of global markets. Citing 2014 numbers, the Indian sport channel Sony SIX claims that 45 per cent (82 million) of its viewership is female, higher than any other Indian sport channel (Television Post, 2015). Sports covered by the network during that year included Indian Premier League cricket and the cricket Twenty20 competition, NBA basketball, mixed martial arts UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), TNA (Total Non-stop Action) wrestling, plus the FIFA men’s World Cup in Brazil (Television Post, 2015). In 2010, US sport media network ESPN launched espnW – an online media platform designed to ‘cater to one group that makes up a quarter of its television audience: women’ (Thomas, 2010). As outlined in their mission statement,

espnW’s mission is to connect young women with the sports they love and follow. It serves to inspire and inform today’s female athlete and fan. The site provides an engaging environment where women are an integral part of the sports conversation, share their perspective on women’s and men’s sports and find the motivation and support for their athletic goals and interests.

(espnW, 2015)

The introduction of espnW was not without controversy, however, with US gender sport researcher Michael Messer observing that ‘“Yes, it’s going to give women’s sports fans a place to go,” he said, “but it might ultimately ghettoise women’s sports and kind of take ESPN off the hook in terms of actually covering them on its main broadcast”’ (Thomas, 2010). We can also point to the proliferation of blogs and related digital networked technologies aimed at women sport fans and/or covering women’s sport as a sign of the female sport fan audience outside mainstream media channels. Chapter 5 deals in detail with this phenomenon.

The increased visibility of women as sport spectators is further suggested by industry research, with comparisons of North American viewership of the Winter Olympic Games and the US National Football League (NFL) Super Bowl in 2010 showing more women than men watching the Olympics (Nielsen, 2010). The female television audience for the Olympics measured 56 per cent, with 46 per cent of viewers for the Super Bowl that year being women (Nielsen, 2010). Ratings figures in Australia suggest women are avid watchers of the Australian Open tennis tournament (36 per cent of women, compared to 33 per cent of men), with 29 per cent of viewers for Australia’s national sport – cricket – being women (Roy Morgan Research, 2015).

It has been argued that women are more likely to watch sport when it is packaged as a major social event – like the entertainment spectacular of the NFL Super Bowl in the USA, or the global spectacle of the Olympics or football World Cups (Wenner, 2012, p. 204). With regards to the latter, German surveys have observed women’s increased interest in football when the national team play (Meier & Leinwather, 2012; Meier, Strauss, & Riedl, 2015), and Mee (2004) has written of the unprecedented participation of Korean women as fans of the men’s World Cup co-hosted by their country in 2002. Yet figures for domestic sport leagues indicate that women are also invested in sport as fans who attend matches and follow their team throughout each season. Of the information available on female football (soccer) followers in Europe, it has been shown that 21.8 per cent of the Danish Football federation’s membership was comprised of women and girls in 2012 (Pfister, Lenneis & Mintert, 2013), with women’s stadium attendance estimated at 10 to 30 per cent (Mintert & Pfister, 2015), while in the UK context it has been suggested that 15 to 19 per cent of English Premier League football fans are women (Pope, 2011, p. 473). Wo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 Facts, Figures and Frameworks: Approaching the Study of Women Sport Fans
• 2 Identities, Performances and Pleasures
• 3 Consumption
• 4 Representation
• 5 Digital Networks
• 6 The Postfeminist Sport Fan
• Conclusion
• Index