The Experience of Female Football Fans in England : a Qualitative Study
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The experience of female football fans in England : A qualitative study. DUNN, Caroline Stephanie. Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/20192/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. 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Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 The experience of female football fans in England: a qualitative study Caroline Stephanie Dunn A thesis submitted as partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 2012 Acknowledgements There are so many people I would like to thank for their support and encouragement during the years in which I have been researching and writing my PhD. First, thank you to my supervisors Kathy Doherty and Dave Waddington at Sheffield Hallam University, without whom this would not have been possible, and who have made the final stages of my research a joy. A very special thank you to Ruth Deller for her help and support. Thank you to Gary Naylor for his advice, to Lee Miller for his much-appreciated guidance, and to David Pegler for his technical advice and assistance. Thank you to John Myles for helping me to scope out this project, and Bill Osgerby, Anna Gough-Yates and Jenny Harding for their guidance in the thesis’s initial stages. Thank you to all my respondents for so graciously giving up their time, to those within the world of football that I interviewed, and to Dave Boyle and Kevin Rye of Supporters Direct. Finally, thank you to my family - my parents Kelvin Dunn and Sandra Dunn, my grandfathers George Dunn and Henry Notley, my sister Philippa Agar, and my baby nephew George. Caroline Dunn London, 2012 Table of contents Abstract 7 1 Introduction 8 1.1 Area of investigation 8 1.2 Who is ‘the fan’? 11 1.2.1 Defining the fan and the supporter 11 1.3 A brief history of female football fandom 13 1.4 The uniqueness of women’s experience 17 1.5 My research questions 18 1.6 The structure of this thesis 19 1.7 Conclusion 21 2 Literature review 22 2.1 Introduction 22 2.2 The invisible woman 23 2.2.1 Social histories and accounts of football 24 2.2.2 Football hooliganism 26 2.3 The changing face of football: its implications for research 30 2.3.1 The 1980s: a turning point 30 2.3.2 Commercialisation and globalisation 34 2.3.3 The sense of community within fandom 38 2.3.4 Club subculture 39 2.4 Identity, display and participation 40 2.4.1 Experience and identity 40 2.4.2 Performativity and performance in sport and sports fandom 42 2.4.3 The ‘maleness’ of football discourse 45 2.5 Conclusion 49 3 The focus on female fandom 51 3.1 Introduction 51 3.2 Female fandom outside of sport 51 3.3 Case studies of female football fandom 56 3.4 Female fandom in other sports 66 3.5 Conclusion 70 4 Methodology 73 4.1 Introduction 73 4.2 Positioning the research within traditions of epistemology 73 and theory 4.3 Selecting appropriate methods 78 4.3.1 Questionnaire design and employment; recruitment of 78 respondents 4.3.2 Conceptualising the interview 84 4.3.3 Defining narrative 85 4.3.4 Eliciting narrative via interview 88 4.3.5 Re-membering 91 4.3.6 Developing areas of interest for the interviews 94 4.3.7 Conducting the focus group 98 4.3.8 Transcription and analysis of the main interview data 100 4.3.9 Thematic analysis 102 4.4 The research relationship 106 4.4.1 Power relations in the interview situation and the ‘aca/fan’ 110 4.5 Reflection on my methods 119 4.6 Conclusion 123 5 The female fan’s relationships within her family and fan 126 community from childhood to adulthood 5.1 Introduction 126 5.2 How, when and why fans begin to support their team 127 5.2.1 Location and the ‘community’ 127 5.2.2 Initiation, socialisation and the familial tradition of support 129 5.2.3 Overview of the primary influences which attract child fans 130 to football 5.2.4 The father’s influence on the female child and her 133 development of autonomous fandom 5.2.5 Family opposition to female football fandom 144 5.3 Continuing the father-daughter relationship after his death 150 5.3.1 The significance of the club’s location and the feeling of 155 topophilia 5.4 The influence of platonic friends on the female fan 157 5.5 The influence of husbands and boyfriends 162 5.6 The female fan as mother 165 5.6.1 The pregnant female fan’s access to the football ground 166 5.6.2 The female fan’s reduced attendance in motherhood 169 5.6.3 The female fan’s renewal and/or maintenance of support in 173 motherhood 5.6.4 Children of female fans and their socialisation into support 176 5.6.5 Issues of childcare and children’s attendance 179 5.7 The female fan’s opposition to the family’s involvement in 181 football 5.8 Conclusion 182 6 Some patterns of female fans’ supporting performances 184 and behaviour 6.1 Introduction 184 6.2 Preparation for the match 185 6.2.1 Travel 185 6.2.2 Tickets 188 6.2.3 Childcare 190 6.2.4 Additional preparation 191 6.2.5 At the match 195 6.2.6 Travel to away matches 198 6.3 Behaviour and appearance within the ground: performativity 204 of gender and the gender continuum 6.4 Fandom’s position in everyday life 208 6.4.1 The purchase of merchandise 209 6.4.2 The matchday programme 212 6.4.3 Media consumption 215 6.5 Institutionalised sexism and the dilemma of negotiating 224 identity 6.5.1 The Mike Newell controversy: respondents’ reactions 225 6.6 Conclusion 229 7 Female fans’ experience of the significance of the 231 supporters’ trust movement 7.1 Introduction 231 7.2 Finance, politics and football: the development of the 232 supporters’ trust movement 7.2.1 Insolvency and financial problems in football 233 7.2.2 The mobilisation of supporters’ groups and the development 235 of the supporters’ trust movement 7.2.3 My involvement in the supporters’ trust movement 238 7.2.4 The appeal of the supporters’ trust movement to female 238 football fans 7.3 My respondents’ involvement in the supporters’ trust 242 movement 7.3.1 Tracy - QPR First 243 7.3.2 Kimberley and Sarah - Watford 247 7.3.3 Carole and Alison - Notts County 252 7.3.4 Anna - Leyton Orient 256 7.3.5 Viki - Charlton Athletic 257 7.3.6 Tabatha - Brentford 260 7.4 Conclusion 262 8 The perception of female football fans’ practices by clubs 265 and authorities 8.1 Introduction 265 8.2 How clubs perceive and market to female fans 265 8.3 The football authorities and their attitude to ‘sexism’ 270 8.4 Conclusion 281 9 Discussion 282 9.1 Introduction 282 9.2 Key findings and reflection on initial aims 282 9.2.1 Why do women become football supporters? 283 9.2.2 What do women get out of being football supporters? 284 9.2.3 How does being a football supporter affect a woman’s 284 (performance of) identity? 9.2.4 How do women become football supporters? 285 9.2.5 How does their fandom manifest itself? 285 9.2.6 How does their fandom affect or frame their everyday lives? 286 9.2.7 What is the peculiarity of female football fans’ experience? 287 9.3 Reflection on this thesis 287 9.4 The future of (research into) female fandom 289 9.5 Conclusion 290 Appendix A Questionnaire and responses 293 Appendix B Ethical statement distributed to respondents 303 Bibliography 306 List of tables 4.1 Profile of interviewees 82 5.1 Person prompting respondents into attending matches 131 6.1 How respondents prepare for going to matches 186 6.2 Respondents buying a season ticket for previous season 188 6.3 Other necessary preparations for match attendance 192 6.4 Types of merchandise purchased from club last season 210 7.1 Respondents who support clubs with a supporters’trust 239 7.2 Respondents whose club has a supporters’ trust of which 240 they are a member 7.3 Respondents who support clubs with a supporters’ club 240 7.4 Respondents whose club has a supporters’ club of which 241 they are a member 6 Abstract There is little, arguably insufficient literature in the mainstream (or ‘malestream’) domain of sports research focusing exclusively on female football supporters and looking at their reasons for their fandom as well as their particular experiences.