That little girl. Swedish club football and gender expectations

Herd, Katarzyna

Published in: Ethnologia Scandinavica

2018

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Citation for published version (APA): Herd, K. (2018). That little football girl. Swedish club football and gender expectations. Ethnologia Scandinavica, 48(2018), 123-138.

Total number of authors: 1

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LUND UNIVERSITY

PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 That Little Football Girl Swedish Club Football and Gender Expectations By Katarzyna Herd

The title of this article comes from a com- ries? How are women evaluated through ment made about me. It was uttered infor- the broader social context? mally, but within a research community Entering football as a female researcher nevertheless. I was referred to as “that is not without problems, although, from little football girl”, and although the com- my experience, it is not very dramatic ei- ment was swiftly trivialized, as in “I did ther. Football is a very creative and flex- not mean anything negative”, it left me ible environment, and it reflects broader pondering on how my gender reflected on social contexts with all its issues and de- the seriousness of my research. The aim of velopments. Thus, a local football club is this article is to explore from an intersec- firmly situated in its local reality, and also tional perspective how the researcher’s constructed and performed by individuals social markings influence the studied field who make football a part of their reality and how gender can be constructed, per- and of their everyday routines. The ability formed and contested in a context of to accommodate different narratives, ele- Swedish club football. The emphasis is on ments, and interpretations of football is ethnographic work done by a female re- also visible in gender constructions. searcher, but it probes gender expecta- Women are not only present physically in tions that become visible when expressed many different activities, but football also in the context of football, a context that presents interesting “grey zones” of gen- traditionally excluded rather than includ- der roles that are performed and interpret- ed females. ed on the spot. This article thus explores The article engages in a discussion of such instances, using examples from my femininity and females in football first, own experience as a multi-layered then focuses on one encounter from match stranger in the “male zone”, as football observations in 2015, which highlights the tends to be described (e.g. Welford 2011). complexity of this field. The material pre- When one talks about football, the im- sented here was acquired while conduct- mediate association is with the men’s ing interviews and observations in four football. It does not need any additional Swedish football clubs, but not with gen- words to be understood as a male activity. der in focus. However, the fieldwork hap- Because of this female football requires pened in the social space described and the adjective “female” before the name of acknowledged as being dominated by the game (field notes, 2016). As Pierre men. The intensity of this field and polar- Bourdieu commented in his book Mascu- ization in terms of the gender perception line Domination: “The strength of the made this perspective unavoidable. Fo- masculine order is seen in the fact that it cusing on small-scale agencies could be dispenses with justification: the androcen- one way to approach the taken-for-granted tric vision imposes itself as neutral and male domination that seems mostly un- has no need to spell itself out in discourses contested. The article deals with questions aimed at legitimating it” (Bourdieu 2001: that were triggered within this gendered 9). The norm has been established and one context. How are women framed in this gender’s domination has been institution- context? How do they negotiate bounda- alized. When I write about my study ob-

Ethnologia Scandinavica, Vol. 48, 2018 124 Katarzyna Herd, That Little Football Girl

ject, which is a set of Swedish male foot- trespassers and forcing them to apply cat- ball clubs, I can say “football” only, and I egories and evaluations already filtered reproduce a pattern of inequality that is and established through this domination taken for granted. (Bourdieu 2001:35). Further, gender In this article I problematize this specif- comes with the combination of class, age ic gendered space and the gender expecta- and ethnicity (to name some of the inter- tions that surround it. The aim is to ex- sections) that contribute to evaluations of plore how females are perceived and writ- the present form of football. ten about in the football context. This art- icle also presents a certain way of doing Women – Present but not Noticed masculinities while having femininities in Football environment is associated with a focus, exploring the margins that women certain type of masculinity and specific tend to be ascribed to and showing how displays of gender constructions, usually the centre can be disrupted (Fur 2006). strengthened by media depictions that fo- While taking on board my ethnographic cus on different sorts of aggression and experiences from several years, I shall violence, both by male fans on the stands present female participants in the “male and by players on the pitch. But women do preserve” who are supporters, who work watch football and they make up a con- for clubs, and deal with football profes- siderable share of spectators. A quantita- sionally as researchers. The available lit- tive study from 2006 from gives a erature concentrates mostly on females as number of 28 per cent for women present fans (Dixon 2015; Mintert & Pfister 2015; at the standing section during a match in Richards 2015; Dunn 2014; Pfister, Len- Malmö (Horsner & Söderberand 2006). neis & Mintert 2013). A recent British Danish researchers present similar figures study of female supporters focuses on (e.g. Pfister, Lenneis & Mintert 2013). their experiences in modern football and Football studies acknowledge the pres- rugby from a sociological perspective ence of women, yet they have also shown (Pope 2017). In Sweden, Aage Radmann that access does not mean equality (Wel- from Malmö University has been involved ford 2011). The norm has been firmly in a project about Swedish female sup- based on male supporters, with women porters. Women are present at stadiums in becoming “an oddity” in the masculine different roles, but their agency is often background. As Pierre Bourdieu re- filtered through the masculine reading of marked, “The dominated apply categories football. Thus, the negotiating and con- constructed from the point of view of the testing of borders that happens there is not dominant to the relations of domination, acknowledged. thus making them appear as natural” The category of gender is introduced (2001:35). While doing research I fell into here rather crudely, but because the inter- that trap. I started “noticing” women, writ- est in football is more inclined to be attri- ing in my notebook that there were many, buted to men (e.g. Mintert & Pfister that they were of different age, hopped 2015), this field does constitute a space of and sang in the standing section or accom- male dominance, thus making females panied their children (field notes 2015). I Katarzyna Herd, That Little Football Girl 125

fished them out of the crowd as something Devoted fans, referred to as ultras that I perceived as unusual due to my own groups with their picturesque accessories perception of football. (flares and smokes), are a relatively new Kevin Dixon (2015) and Carrie Dunn phenomenon (see Herd 2017; Testa 2009). (2014) have pointed out, referring to older They claim a strong influence on the phil- categorizations, that women still tend to osophy of being a “good fan” and behav- be branded as “new fans”, not authentic or ing according to specific rules during traditional, but civilizing, in contrast to matches, but as Maria stated, women had aggressive, authentic and norm-making rather limited access to specific sup- male fans. This “authentic” is rooted in the porters’ organizations, especially those perception of a working-class masculini- perceived as contesting the law and order. ty, especially in the English context. The One ultras group in Malmö was said to idea is that women have different reasons openly ban women from their structures to engage with football, or rather that foot- (field notes 2013). While attending an ball would not be the first and foremost away match I suddenly needed to get back choice of entertainment. One female inter- home and I was told I could not get into viewee, Maria, talked about interesting the same bus because women were not al- gender perceptions within the supporters’ lowed to travel with them. A group of organizations: young men from different social and eth- As a woman, you can only join Black Army and nic backgrounds, and also openly oppos- Sol Invictus, you can’t join the others. At Sol In- ing racism (field notes 2015), would then victus – they have a code during a match, if you create gender division in their organiza- want to be with them. You are there for AIK, not tion. for yourself. No kissing, you have to sing 90 min- This was both curious and unsettling as utes, no mobile phones, no selfies, no cute girl- female presence was just not physically friends. You are there for the team. acceptable. Manliness could be seen as a Maria was a devoted fan and she was very relational notion that was “constructed in active in one of the supporters’ organiza- front of and for other men and against tion. She singled out a phenomenon that femininity, in a kind of fear of the female, bothers some football goers – that women firstly in oneself” (Bourdieu 1978:53). there were just “girlfriends” accompany- This dichotomy of male-female might ing the boys. The code of behaviour pre- have become even more important since, scribed for the aforementioned group pro- as mentioned above, “the other” in the hibited things that could hinder support, form of ethnic divisions has become neu- “cute girlfriends” becoming one such tralized. Racial tensions previously visible problem. Although women could be in the in Sweden football faded away (field group, they were described from the male notes 2015). Many of the interviewed point of view, even by Maria, objectified match-goers were positive that there was a and classified in the same category as mix of all possible social classes at sta- phones and photos that distracted people diums too. Although very proud of how from the match and from providing a good inclusive and integrated they were with atmosphere. other social categories, the group man- 126 Katarzyna Herd, That Little Football Girl

aged to build that unity by excluding Pierre Bourdieu commented on inter- women. pretations of female behaviour in restrict- One young woman I spoke with really ed spaces: “More generally, access to wanted to engage with the ultras, whose power of any kind places women in a members liked to bring flares to stadiums. “double bind”: if they behave like men, She said that she faced some very harsh they risk losing the obligatory attributes of evaluations because she was a female and “femininity” and call into question the thus suspected of going “after the guys” natural right of men to the positions of (field notes 2013). However, women power; if they behave like women, they could be seen in the standing crowd, and appear incapable and unfit for the job” for example, young girls put black hoods (Bourdieu 2001:68). Evaluations from re- on and held flares (field notes 2015). The searchers, as well as from their football- space was not forbidden to them, but quite oriented peers, leave women with little often the male structure made it difficult room to manoeuvre. They depend on the for them to participate without adhering to external gaze and they can be dominated “masculine” values. by those who hold power over them, Kevin Dixon (2015) and Jessica Rich- meaning the dominant supporters’ groups ards (2015) have both pointed out that fe- as well as those evaluating them from ex- male supporters need to acquire “mascu- ternal positions. line” behaviour in order to be seen as Mintert and Pfister put forward the no- “proper” fans. However, this masculine tion that the idea of femininity within the behaviour presents only one possibility football context might get a different of being a fan. The descriptions of purely evaluation outside that context, as the ma- “masculine” or “feminine” behaviour jority of participants are still biological seem to monopolize the popular under- males. Women are then “confronted” with standing of gender performance. Connell “norms and ideals of femininity in socie- (1995:70) pointed out that majority of ty” (Mintert & Pfister 2015:417). men do not fit with the dominant picture Women in this context face contradic- of masculinity in Western societies. It is tory evaluations and meet stereotypes then possible to problematize this further based on the idea that there are female as both women and men experience the biological bodies in a presumably mascu- “hegemonic” way of being a loud and line environment. Statements produced by slightly abusive supporter, but they do some scholars, that women who swear and not necessarily intend to reproduce it. shout like men do not do any favour to Certainly, because the majority of spec- other females, indicate the persistent no- tators are men, there is a tendency to tion of some sort of required “sisterhood” view their behaviour in terms of “mascu- in this kind of environment that would line” (Connell 1995:79). Female support- draw women together. Such evaluations ers are faced with a lot of prejudice not seem to be based on a specific idea of only from their male counterparts but femininity that is an intersectional con- also from other females (Mintert & struct of gender, class and ethnicity as Pfister 2015). well, yet resulting in opinions based on Katarzyna Herd, That Little Football Girl 127

gender as just one category (Skeggs 1997: girls just come to see guys” but I don’t see that 99). In short, when becoming active in anymore. We are all just fans there (interview with football, women are faced with a strong Martha, 2013). division between their gender identity and These women, Maria and Martha, sup- gender roles (Hatty 2000:111‒112). Why ported different teams, and they were very would women care about other women? emotional towards their clubs. They were As football supporters they are framed in also sensitive to the categorizations that a range of intersectional, anarchistic con- can happen within the context. They were flicts (see Foucault 1994:330) that include insiders, holding their ground against out- supporters of rival teams, supporters of side forces like the security or media, but their own team from different factions they were aware that they could be singled (with indicators like age and social class out on the ground of their biology, in a being spelled strongly), police, club offi- both excluding and including way. Ma- cials etc. (field notes 2015). ria’s remark about feeling safe was a curi- ous statement that revealed that it is up to Women in Stadiums men to control security issues as well. How do female fans describe themselves Dixon’s evaluation (2015:645‒646) then? Those that I encountered became that female presence during matches fascinated with this world, sometimes “does not necessarily disrupt established travelled for hours just to see their teams, gender discourses […] but perhaps does wanted to do more than just sit and watch nothing more than celebrate the practice and got involved in various organizations. of masculinity and segregate those fe- They talked about prejudice and hin- males that are unwilling to participate” is drances, but through the lens of being a a valid statement, but it takes into con- supporter. Through engaging with a club sideration only one version of masculinity and establishing themselves in the scene that currently dominates in football dis- they started feeling included, they did not courses making the hegemonic display of differentiate themselves from other sup- it the only one (Connell 1995:76‒77). Al- porters just based on the gendered issues. so, the point of their performance is to be Maria said in her interview: a fan, femininity becoming something to be negotiated in this specific context so An AIK woman is a tough woman. You have to be able to defend your club and it is not easy. There that it would allow women to participate is not a week without something written about fully rather than becoming a hindrance. AIK in the newspapers, like Aftonbladet constant- Although female supporters were never ly writes about us. And they can gang together officially banned from watching football, against you. […] But as a woman you feel safe the specific character of this context made here, because if the guys see you at away matches them unsuited for participation. Women and so on they look after you, they make sure that experienced what Bourdieu describes as you are safe (2015). “socially imposed agoraphobia” (2001: Another woman, Martha, said: 39). Certainly, it was not an institutional- Some just want to see the difference because you ized thing not to have women cheering for are a woman. Before some would say “oh those football, but the historical developments 128 Katarzyna Herd, That Little Football Girl

and the sheer fact that football means 2015). The heterotopic character (Fou- men’s football imposed a frame of behav- cault 1984) of this space means that there iour and social acceptance that did not are no rigid boundaries and participants work in women’s favour. have a certain room to explore and de- Irene Andersson, a researcher in history velop their presence at stadiums. If fe- and gender, in her text about photographs males are selected and framed based only from early twentieth-century Malmö, on invariant displays of femininity, then pointed out how few women, almost none they are used yet again to strengthen the basically, appear on the old photos taken dominant group. in the streets of this city. Andersson also presents a nutshell definition of the mas- Complexities of Gender and Football culinity construct from those days; a man As the main empirical field of my research who would work in a shipyard, watch consists of male football clubs that are re- matches of the local team Malmö FF, and gion-oriented and dominated by native vote for the Social Democrats (2013:7). male participants, it marks me as an out- Although her book had nothing to do with sider on several levels – I was not born or football, she connected this event to raised in Sweden, I was an undergraduate the image of typical masculinity in the student, I was not a supporter, I saw my city, as that would be an essential ingredi- first match live when I began my work. ent for working-class men. The fieldwork happened in an environ- To develop this thought further one ment that I did not grow up with and thus could reason that the behaviour described it was quite unfamiliar. Categories like by scholars as the “masculine norm” could gender, nationality and purpose of partici- be viewed as being context-specific and, pation did not exactly resonate with the as Connell presented, masculinities rely majority of spectators at stadiums, and on historical evaluations and can be inter- gender was one of those categories. preted as political constructions as well Beverley Skeggs has written extensive- (1995). Not everybody strives for aggres- ly about the position that is ascribed to sive forms of expression and unruly be- women in various environments. As she haviour, but these performances attract the comments, “In order to produce spatial media attention and persist as the norm exclusion a centre has to be constructed there. These are negotiated within the that represents “real” belonging, and those framework of a club and a specific fan who really belong have to display and em- group as this environment is a socially body the right characteristics and disposi- constructed space (Lefebvre 1972). More- tions” (2004:19). The issue of inclusion over, supporters change their supporting and exclusion is right in the centre of style according to age, current life situa- various football discourses. It is not only tion and the group’s preferences. This about the immediate opponent in a form of means occupying different parts of a sta- another club. Further, deep divisions can dium too, from the very active standing be observed within one organization, for section, to “sitting & singing”, and even example among various supporters’ the family section (field notes 2014‒ groups (Herd 2017). Nobody really holds Katarzyna Herd, That Little Football Girl 129

a monopoly on the right kind of supporter, & Pfister 2015:417). Being feminine is and evaluations of support vary. A “hege- then about public acceptance and valida- monic” interpretation does exist, but tion. Women are not feminine automatic- mostly in the collective imagination creat- ally; it has to be constructed in an act of ed by the media, and it is contested and public performance (Skeggs 1997:107). re-evaluated (Connell 1995:77). This ideal is not suitable for many women Nevertheless, football is acknowl- and excludes different variabilities, em- edged, treated and described as an ex- bedded in a dominant class ideal that in- ample of a “malestream”, an environment tertwines with age, ethnicity, education built by men, for men and further still and economic capital. Thus, doing “femi- studied by men even in modern research nine” is not a natural behaviour but a (Welford 2011; Dixon 2015; Richards learning outcome (Skeggs 1997:116). 2015). As Mintert and Pfister put it: One could argue that while on the one Up to now, football research has been a predomi- hand female football supporters need to nately male domain. Male scholars conduct re- become more masculine, they are also search on men’s football on male fans. […] Foot- given social permission to explore femi- ball is a game invented by and for men. Until ninity within female behaviour, just as 1970, the national and international football feder- men do, as neither of those categories is ations did not support women’s football teams and fixed. Masculinities are also complex games (2015: 406). and context-dependent. Far too often Welford (2011:365) even referred to it as there is just one-sided form of presenting a “time honoured male preserve”. Thus, football through specific masculine per- the field I operate in puts women outside formance that fits with the established of the core cultural capital on many levels mainstream evaluation of football as vio- and situates them in the margins. Current lent and dangerous. I would suggest that football research has acknowledged the football does offer women and men pos- presence of female spectators, yet it also sibilities to transgress and challenge the acknowledges that access does not mean one-sided view of femininity and mascu- equality (Welford 2011). Being able to linity. conduct research in this field does not It should be stressed, though, that mean inclusion as such. At the same time, women in football are not given the cul- women, no matter what position and inter- tural capital when it comes to the “tradi- est they might have, encounter evaluations tional” view of the sport, commonly un- based on the established connection be- derstood as a stereotype of a male, slightly tween football and masculinity. abusive and slightly drunk, connected to Male performances of gender could the idea of working-class activities. How- undergo similar processes of evaluation, ever, the developments in football have albeit in a different way. Because the been oriented towards the experience broader social context holds a strict view economy, profitable marketing and family of what femininity is, female participants fun (Kennedy & Kennedy 2012; van Uden can face ongoing criticism for being “like 2005). After the tragic events in English men” or not being “like women” (Mintert football (e.g. the Hillsborough disaster – a 130 Katarzyna Herd, That Little Football Girl

deadly accident during a match between try let me become an insider in one sense, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in 1989 but also fixed me as an outsider as I did when 96 people were killed) there have not have one role but shifted from situa- been a number of voices advocating for tion to situation, from match to match. I more women and children at stadiums as could become, as Sara Ahmed puts it, a that would ease the atmosphere and make stranger-friend in one (2000). My partici- them feel safer, basically making them a pation and eagerness to learn and observe part of the gentrification process (e.g. were usually greeted with warmth and re- Dixon 2015 and Jones 2005, after Taylor spect but it would not result in deeper re- Report 1990). In that sense, women as a lationships. gender group became desirable precisely This contextualized friendship, as prob- because of their sexuality that somehow lematized by Ahmed, resulted in relative would guarantee a safer space. Presum- safety and self-assurance when watching ably for this reason, family sections at sta- football. My role and position were in a diums in Sweden are placed right next to way fixed as the one who translates the sections for away supporters. It is sup- football context into an academic environ- posed to soften some thugs’ hearts to see ment. Thus, I became a “professional small children, but it also means that those stranger” while maintaining rather close young fans listen to abuse directed at their relations with my informants (Ahmed team. Interestingly enough, one of the fa- 2000:59). I mostly interviewed and spent vourite forms of offence in the Swedish time with men and it seemed that my gen- context refers to female reproductive or- der contributed to separating me from the gans (field notes 2014). group. Nevertheless, football is very flex- ible and accommodating, and very differ- Hugs and Punches ent people are attracted to it as well. I have Thus, women in football face different been hugged quite a lot, usually when a evaluations depending on whether it is the team scored. The overflow and over-the- “old” shabby and slightly drunk football top display of emotions usually resulted in one wishes to portray, or the new, glossy an urgent need to embrace a person near- enterprise financed by rich oil magnates. by. Sometimes it happened to be me (field Femininity has been caught in the eco- notes 2014‒2015). nomic and class struggle on football The “friendship” or hugging would not stands. I found myself in this maze when I really happen outside the context. My es- entered the field as an MA student doing tablished position was as a researcher and qualitative research for one of the top as such I was granted a degree of access. It clubs in Sweden. I was lucky to be granted also, I dare say, made me into a “safe” in- access inside and I could observe and in- dividual. I did not claim knowledge or su- terview not only supporters of various perior interpretation, which is a touchy is- kinds but also the clubs’ management and sue in football. The categories that differ- players. I could watch matches with sup- entiated me from the usual football crowd porters, from the section for journalists or created a zone for fairly neutral discus- from the pitch. The different points of en- sions. Katarzyna Herd, That Little Football Girl 131

Since those categories could be ex- sewing machines. The ethnologist Jesper plained and brought forward, the other Fundberg wrote in his dissertation about hindrances were not as problematic for the youth football and masculinities (2003) purpose of the study. I was there to learn that females, mostly mums, engaged in and since I was so different from what youth football teams in Sweden, tend to could be called an average Swedish sup- arrange food and drink, so to speak “nour- porter I could claim total oblivion to foot- ish” the young players without having an ball-related matters and not be punished immediate contact with the game or train- for that. In my case, then, not knowing a ing. thing was perceived a norm, and being The “occupational identity” (Alvesson able to state just some facts was greeted & Billing 1997) that is at stake here not with enthusiasm. I would assume male re- only encompasses the “male zone” of searchers could be faced with the opposite football (Welford 2011) but also the cor- problem, when “not knowing” would porate character of the clubs that are cur- damage their position. rently run almost as businesses and em- The sociologist Jessica Richards brace the idea of being “experience econ- (2015), while conducting fieldwork in a omies” (Kennedy & Kennedy 2012; van football context, described herself as be- Uden 2005). That process results in fram- ing viewed as harmless and naïve, femi- ing women in a very specific way. They nine, and advocated for a “trusting rela- become visible as non-masculine workers tionship with key informants, who can and thus not challenging but strengthening play a protective role and assure the per- the gender dominance. It should be point- sonal safety of the ethnographer” (Rich- ed out, though, that a football club does ards 2015:400). Although I understand the not limit itself to male features only. call for a safe research environment, this Terms like logic, rationality, or strategy statement establishes the football scene as are very much associated with masculini- a closed space with rigid codes of behav- ty, but there are also features like love, iour that seem to refer to its one-sided emotional involvement, compassion masculine character requiring an insider clearly visible and expressed, which tend to manoeuvre through it safely. Unexpect- to be associated with stereotypical femi- ed things happen, but like any context ninity (Alvesson & Billing 1997). with its own logic, football is to be Football thus carries a strong associa- learned. The specific sense-making is tion of a specific version of masculinity, based on routinized and ritualized behav- and as a popular sport it also contributes to iour. a certain version of heroes that enter pop- Apart from the strategy of “toughening ular imagination. The heroic stories usual- up” to be taken seriously, there is also a ly have a man in the centre, who estab- “mother-figure” connected to football. lishes his power over nature, animals, and For instance, I have encountered women also women (Hourihan 1997:28). Women who bragged about the work they did fix- are like artefacts in fairy stories, props that ing flags and banners for supporters’ usually play the role of the final price for groups, i.e. sewing fabric together on their the finished mission. Football is not only a 132 Katarzyna Herd, That Little Football Girl

place for heroes on the pitch. Supporters also feel like the important participants, even owners of clubs. Female bodies might disrupt the presupposed – expected – male space for heroism. One could also comment that women are more on the outside as supporters be- cause of the traditional way of looking at male and female experiences. The medie- valist Caroline Bynum Walker (1996 (1984)) in her critique of Victor Turner’s use of liminality, pointed out that his an- alysis seemed to be based on a particular class and category of people, namely men high on the social scale (Bynum Walker 1996 (1984):75). The liminal character of religious experiences analysed by Turner was then possible to notice because of the social structures those men operated in. An important part of entering liminality was “turning points” that were extraordi- nary for men (for example involving emo- tions) but ordinary for women (Bynum Walker 1996 (1984):74). Fans at the sta- dium engage in the behaviour that is spe- Some of the police and security present at the sta- cific for the space, but since men are more dium and a broken soda machine, May 2015. expected to be there, it might be that the presence of female fans just does not fit from other forms of research because of with the established narrative. the intensity of the experience” (Skeggs 1995:197). One can say that this intensi- Reevaluations fies during matches as it is a highly emo- As mentioned above, I have been able to tional event. After spending a couple of enter the football context from several dif- years with this field and becoming famil- ferent angles. The degree of engagement iar with evaluations there, I have become and the style is individual and it is con- aware that I could somewhat influence the stantly reworked and reinterpreted. Thus, scene. Sometimes supporters would ask categories of being insider or outsider are who I was when seeing me writing fran- not only a matter of external evaluation, tically in my notebook, but generally, I but there is also a degree of personal deci- was not given that much attention. sion. The following extract from my field Researching football has its special fla- notes refers to a match that I attended in vours: “Ethnography is very different May 2015 together with away supporters. Katarzyna Herd, That Little Football Girl 133

Since it was not the “home ground”, we I said it in English because the shock complete- were thoroughly checked and all the time ly cleared Swedish from my head. surrounded by, what seemed like, hun- “It’s a closed area.” dreds of policemen and security guards, He replied in Swedish. I did not see any tape, any markings, anything. Nothing was happening, dressed as if prepared for the worst of there was nothing behind him, just chatting po- riots, with batons, huge helmets, guns and licemen to his right side. so on ready to be used. I attended several “You can just tell me you don’t have to push games with away fans, but this was the me.” first real “high profile” match with visit- I was almost screaming, I felt so angry. He ing fans. I was alone on this occasion. Al- stared at me, almost as if he suddenly realized that so, I chose to wear a scarf in the colours of I was speaking English to him. I was very upset but also, to my surprise, I turned almost confron- the away team. Since I travelled with tational. I did not want to move from there. […] those fans to the stadium, wearing the Slowly, the policemen and guards left, supporters scarf seemed to me like showing some re- slowly moved back to the stands. Secret police spect. kept talking to themselves. When the movement began, I could go towards that “closed area”. Be- During half time something happened. Many hind a pillar, there lay a broken soda machine. young guys dressed in black, who were at the bot- Was this what happened? Somebody knocked tom of our section, rushed inside to the area with down a soda machine? small shops and toilets. I follow them. There were I went back to the stands too but I began to feel lots of people, many policemen and security overwhelmed. I started feeling scared. Legs were guards. Half of the crowd was grey-bright yellow (the security forces), and the other half was mostly shaking and I felt like crying. I had to leave. There black. The young supporters made like half a was almost no one outside, I walked out of the sta- circle and just stood there. Hardly anybody was dium and through several security fences, trying talking, the atmosphere seemed incredibly tense, to find my bike. I took the scarf off. I was almost but it was also very still, seemed frozen almost. crying at that point. There were some 4‒5 people standing in the The situation presented above decontext- middle, talking to themselves. It did not take long ualized my former experiences and re- to notice earpieces that they had, and unnaturally thick clothes. They had to be in a secret police framed my position in the field. It also force of something. They made an odd scene in brought the realization of how dependent the middle of this. I was on the external gaze and the evalua- One security guard was standing a bit to the tion of my position. side, the others talked in a big group, looking like This encounter was rather brief and giant bees with huge helmets in their hands and a lasted perhaps ten minutes. Nevertheless, lot of equipment attached to their belts. I kept thinking that there were more members of the it made a lasting impression on me and my police force than there were supporters. […] I position in the field. I felt violated and in- wanted to take a photo of the policemen and I took credibly vulnerable and I knew how a step forward, raising my mobile phone. In this powerless I would have been should the instant, the lonely security guard grabbed me by guard proceed in this evaluation of me as my shoulders and pushed me rather violently to a dangerous (or unwelcome) individual. the side. I almost fell down. I was extremely sur- prised but instead of walking away I went back to Suddenly, I was stripped of the many cat- a straight position and started to reason with him. egories I would define myself with. It all “What did I do?” was replaced by my supporter identity, the 134 Katarzyna Herd, That Little Football Girl

one that I was not even fully aware of. But with a fixed identity rather than perform- I had a scarf around my neck. I was, clear- ing identity, and she stresses the passivity ly, a supporter. Would that mean that I of the position. In the situation described should have expected physical force? It above, the position as dangerous supporter seemed that I was influenced by the evalu- was ascribed to me more than it was per- ations of females in football that I came formed. My own gender expectations af- across but it did not protect me. Perhaps I fected my judgement. I was supposed to started to perceive myself as a harmless represent the “not-so-dangerous” group. individual, a pacifier, a small woman who Somehow, the space itself guaranteed keeps making notes and taking photos not that we would be evaluated as dangerous bothered by excited men around her. One individuals. I use “we” here, as in the could say that I should have been aware of crowd of perhaps a thousand persons the impression that I was making. I naive- there were children and the elderly, many ly assumed that if anything, police would women, and a group of 50‒60 youngsters be after the men in black, a sort of picture in dark clothes that might have been one gets from mass media. My own preju- more prompted into starting a fight (field dice was questioned. notes 2015). But none of this mattered. Further, just like many interviewed fe- The guard had no time to grade my indi- male supporters, I considered a stadium as vidual femininity. We constituted a dan- a safe place. Until the meeting with the gerous group when decorated with law-and-order representative, I had never scarves or shirts, opposite to the con- been scared there. I also heard in several siderably strong, well-organized group interviews that men would never armed with various devices and officially women when it comes down to fighting, organized, also able to communicate unless of course women chose to partici- through ear devices. pate (field notes 2013, 2015). Although Because I had a scarf, something that I football violence does not operate on did not pay much attention to, I openly gentlemen’s rules, a former hooligan marked myself as somebody different stated that he only “fought with those who from the rest of society. I allowed others wanted to fight” (field notes 2013). This to recognize me in a way. I assume that it exemplifies different evaluations of vio- contributed to the guard’s reaction to my lence and different types of it that can oc- attempt to take a photo. A social marker of cur there. my identity appeared, creating an intersec- I entered the scene from a complete tion of other markers. As Ahmed puts it, stranger perspective – in my own under- “through strange encounters, the figure of standing – and I slowly learned it. My own the “stranger” is produced, not as that understanding of my role and position was which we fail to recognise, but as that challenged by the security guard. He did which we have already recognised as ‘a not see me as a pacifier of any sort. I was stranger’” (2000:3). In that particular situ- ascribed a different position without no- ation the guard did not need to evaluate ticing it. Skeggs (2004:55) argues that people present there individually. We women are members of a social group clearly formed two camps, one consisting Katarzyna Herd, That Little Football Girl 135

of law-and-order representatives, the good fans and dead-serious, armed police could guys, and the other of potentially danger- be described as grotesque. ous “strangers”. Where I saw diversity, a This is not to claim that the space is safe multitude of fan styles and people marked and free from trouble, and when introduc- by different social categories such as age, ing here concepts of stranger and familiar, class, gender, and ethnicity, he saw a wall one can also ponder about the space itself. of supporters. This rings in tune with the Especially the away section is an interest- unchallenged process or recognition ana- ing construction of home away from lysed by Ahmed: “The stranger comes to home, where fans of the visiting team per- be faced as a form of recognition: we rec- form their social space. A heavy police ognise somebody as a stranger, rather presence disturbed the balance and the than simply failing to recognise them” concrete structure was claimed by some- (2000:21). body else, by a stranger from the sup- As discussed briefly above, the public porters’ perspective. I can only wonder and mass media seem quite stagnated in a who triggered whom and who would be to one-sided view of football fans. Attention blame for crossing the invisible line of is concentrated on the loud, angry-looking standing one’s ground or provoking the males who like to bring flares to stadiums. other. Ahmed developed the idea: The best pictures are the most dramatic, spaces are claimed, or “owned” not so much by in- and so half-stripped young men with habiting what is already there, but by moving masks on and holding burning flares make within, or passing through, different spaces which it to the front pages. The image of a tradi- are only given value as places (with boundaries) tional supporter is being set within that through the movement or “passing through” itself. frame and also fetishized as a dangerous […] Women’s movements are regulated by a de- stranger (Ahmed 2000:42). Because he (in sire for “safe-keeping”: respectability becomes the media it almost always is a he) often measured by the visible signs of a desire to “stay safe” (Ahmed 2000: 33). wears a mask, he has no face and no iden- tity. His body is blurred by the smoke Police presence around the event and all around it. He becomes the other, the the security precautions marked the space strange individual that shames the society, as dangerous at the point of entrance. a member of an affluent nation who Since football has been established as car- chooses to ignore the rules and engages in rying a risk, the participants also have what is officially consideried criminal be- fixed ways of dealing with and approach- haviour, the use of flares. ing each other. In other words, one learns Police and security are confronted with socially how to approach a stranger such images. Thus, away fans are always (Ahmed 2000:24). To my utter shock and escorted to stadiums, and the amount of confusion, I was dealt with appropriately police, fences, even dogs and horses, is by the norms established before. It would staggering. It might look as if the forces ae seem that once I marked myself with a prepared for a well-organized riot with piece of clothing, or by virtue of just being various weapons and vehicles included. there, I became a citizen of another cate- The contrast between singing and hugging gory. 136 Katarzyna Herd, That Little Football Girl

Concluding Remarks that light it might be not that surprising This article investigates issues of gender that many supporters like displaying an together with other social markers in the abbreviation ACAB – “all cops are bas- football context. Being a female research- tards” (field notes 2015). er can become a valid category in some The category of a supporter in this situ- spaces, but it is still tightly connected to ation worked like other social markers – place, context, social capital and former gender, age, or class. It became available encounters. The football environment as a for creating intersections with different field of study does not become dangerous categories and overshadowing them. The for a female by default. The process of analysis points out that some social con- establishing “danger zones” is tuned with texts, like football, can result in creating establishing who is a stranger and who strong temporary identities that are prone should be disciplined. That evaluation to be evaluated by the outside. A “sup- also operates on assessment and reassess- porter” seems to become a set category, ment of cultural categories ascribed to whereas “gender” becomes more of a flex- every human being. As illustrated in an ible construct that can be overshadowed example above, this evaluation might col- by an evaluation of being a “supporter”. lide when the “stranger” does not realize The intersectional approach in this case when he/she has become one. reveals an interesting way of different cat- The most burning question that I had di- egories gaining strength and/or taken-for- rectly after the incident was, what was that granted character. To onlookers, a “sup- security guard protecting? He marked a porter” should be a bricolage made of space that was off limit for me, but since I other different markers, but in the field, it did not notice or interpret it that way, I be- became one of the recognizable and un- came a trespasser and I was treated ac- derstandable categories that make it poss- cordingly. Neither steel fences nor dra- ible to act and react. matic actions were needed. Boundaries Further, gender appeared to be a result were established on the spot and fixed by of intersectional interpretation. Rather omitting other categories than supporter/ than being just one marker, in football it non-supporter. Although I perceived my- seems to be a construct of evaluations, ex- self as a multi-layered individual with pectations, and influences from other complex identities, these were reduced markers. That could help to explain, in when the guard needed to perform an ac- turn, why discussing masculinity and tion and his assessment made me into a femininity in social spaces like football is dangerous stranger. In other words, en- a challenging task. The grey zones in gen- forcement of boundaries needs somebody der performance are a result of a complex who has already crossed the line (Ahmed structure of this category that undergoes 2000:22). It could be mentioned further different evaluations simultaneously. that the guard established another position After the match referred to in the empir- as he became dangerous for me. The pro- ical example, I needed several weeks to tection, law and order that he symbolized recover from the experience. Not that turned into a token of mistrust and fear. In much happened and it was not a high-risk Katarzyna Herd, That Little Football Girl 137

situation in any way. Nevertheless, the cialized into being supporters. This pro- physical force, the unfamiliar and un- cess depends on the ideal, class, history, friendly touch, and the objectification that and gender as well, although gender is not happened in that case made me extremely a decisive category in those circum- aware of my naïve approach to that situa- stances. The title of this article suggests tion. However, I re-entered the scene prejudice and tough learning curves for fe- some time later, also with away sup- males in football, which are put in place porters, but this time much more “match- by broader social structure more than the smart”. Sara Ahmed (2000:34) have prob- football space itself. When attending a lematized the concept of street wisdom, meeting organized by supporters, and how to walk safely and where to go to be filled almost exclusively with men, I no- safe which applies to females as they are ticed one individual with an impressive required to know when and where they beard, actively greeting entering people can be safe, although men are definitely and shaking hands with the club’s offi- not excluded from the problem of street cials. Besides a football scarf, he was also crime. In a sense, I learned in a crash wearing a T-shirt with a text: This is what course how safety depends on mutual a modern feminist looks like (field notes evaluations. During the next match I was 2014). able to read the police much better, I was able to localize the police in disguise, and Katarzyna Herd I understood the flow of supporters much Ph.D. student Department of Art and Cultural Sciences better. To quote Skeggs, “experience in- Ethnology forms our take-up and production of posi- Box 192 tions but does not fix us either in time or SE- 223 62 LUND space” (1997:27). e-mail: [email protected] Far from being a simply-definable space, football can be used as an example References of male dominance, as tend to be Ahmed, Sara 2000: Strange Encounters. Em- bodied Others in Post-Coloniality. London: presented in general (Connell 1995:54) Routledge. but on the other hand it is an environment Alvesson, M. & Billing, Yvonne Due 1997: Un- that offers possibilities of variety and also derstanding Gender and Organizations. Lon- contesting existing categories. Moreover, don: SAGE Publications Ltd. Alvesson, M. & Billing, Yvonne Due 2002: Be- the very character of football and its histo- yond Body-Counting. A Discussion of the So- ry as a socially constructed space has cial Construction of Gender at Work. In Gen- traces of more than one hegemonic and der, Identity and the Culture of Organizations, victory-oriented evaluation. Discourses ed. I. Aaltio & J. A. Mills, pp. 72‒91. London & New York: Routledge. about love, devotion and compassion, nar- Andersson, Irene 2013: ”För några kvinnor tycks ratives of fan groups describing them- aldrig ha bott i Malmö”. Om synlighet, erkän- selves as a family question the established nande och genus i berättelser om Malmö. Mal- picture of the ideal masculinity focused on mö Högskola. Retrieved from https:// dspace.mah.se/bitstream/handle/2043/17068/ competition and conflict. MAPIUS14_Irene%20Andersson_e- Both men and women learn and are so- bok_low_def.pdf?sequence=2 (21 March 2016) 138 Katarzyna Herd, That Little Football Girl

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