Watching Sports on Television: Audience Experience, Gender, Fanship, and Marriage

Abstract

In North America there is a folklore about watching sports on television. The folk tale weaves gendered myths with those about mildly dysfunctional but amusing sports fanatics. The armchair quarterback is often characterized as the passionate fan perched at the end of “his” seat and consumed by the saga of his team’s fate. An essential part of the myth is the opened beer can next to the remote control, ready for a guzzle or a quick look at a game on another channel. The armchair quarterback seizes on the situation as one of the few opportunities for the modern male to show his emotional side. Here he cheers and boos, living and dying with the fortunes besetting his team. It is a chance to look in the mirror and see strapping males on center stage playing out dramas that wax nostalgic for a time when physical dominance more clearly corresponded to cultural power.

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