Women’s Football in the United Kingdom
- 1 November 1999
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Journal of Sport and Social Issues
- Vol. 23 (4) , 390-402
Abstract
This article draws on recent quantitative and qualitative research material to show how gender functions in the cultural arena of women’s football in the United Kingdom. In particular, the questionnaire and interview findings show that the “butch lesbian” identity is a concern for those players who have taken part in the research. This supports other research on women taking part in sports traditionally defined as male. I will discuss the findings as they relate to the social construction of gender and lesbianism. The research suggests that our understanding of gender and sexuality is bound up in a structuralist analysis. I will offer a post-structuralist interpretation as a “new” way to theorize gender and sexuality as they function within women’s football culture in the United Kingdom.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Women's Boxing and Related Activities: Introducing Images and MeaningsBody & Society, 1997
- Modern Feminist Thought1995