Women’s Experiences of Sexuality within Football Contexts: A Particular and Located Footballing Epistemology

Abstract

This article documents and explores women’s experiences within football (soccer) contexts in England and Wales. It draws upon questionnaire (470 completed postal questionnaires returned from 870) and interview (14 in-depth semi-structured interviews with women aged between 21 and 42). The research was carried out during the seasons 1997-1998 and 19981999. In particular, the research material is used to support discussions that take account of women’s experiences of sexuality. Through a feminist poststructuralist analysis of social [sexual] relations a particular and located footballing epistemology is offered. I use the research to argue that football’s sexual imperative is shifting and dynamic. And through a detailed analysis of the functioning of footballing sexualities, I suggest that the peremptorycompulsory heterosexuality, is in fact ‘leaky’. Introduction This paper offers a particular analysis of women’s active involvement in football making use of research findings from my PhD, which reflects an engagement with feminist poststructuralism. This theoretical position is explained more fully below. In addition, the discussions that follow are influenced by my own location within the social relations network and, from a feminist perspective, it is important that this position is made transparent. Therefore, I provide a brief autobiography and this is followed by an introduction to feminist poststructuralism and a brief overview of the history and contemporary form of women’s participation in football. Through women’s testimonies I focus on the local operation of power within sexual relations. I show, through an analysis of stereotypes of women who play, how lesbian sexuality has real currency within football contexts. Moving on from the stereotypes, I make use of research material that indicates there is a lesbian presence in football. Sport can provide safe sporting and social spaces for lesbians, and some players have challenged and transgressed the heterosexual ‘norm’ by risking being ‘out’. I consider the extent to which players can display and disclose their sexuality and highlight how some players and teams create ‘dykescapes’. This term reflects how space can be infused with lesbianism. The idea that dykescapes can be created fits a queer political analysis of sexuality and space that is an ‘in your face’ approach to challenging

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