Female Sports Fans Research Articles

Detection of cyberhate speech towards female sport in the Arabic Xsphere.

The recent rapid growth in the number of Saudi female athletes and sports enthusiasts' presence on social media has exposed them to gender-hate speech and discrimination. Hate speech, a harmful worldwide phenomenon, can have severe consequences. Its prevalence in sports has surged alongside the growing influence of social media, with X serving as a prominent platform for the expression of hate speech and discriminatory comments, often targeting women in sports. This research combines two studies that explores online hate speech and gender biases in the context of sports, proposing an automated solution for detecting hate speech targeting women in sports on platforms like X, with a particular focus on Arabic, a challenging domain with limited prior research. In Study 1, semi-structured interviews with 33 Saudi female athletes and sports fans revealed common forms of hate speech, including gender-based derogatory comments, misogyny, and appearance-related discrimination. Building upon the foundations laid by Study 1, Study 2 addresses the pressing need for effective interventions to combat hate speech against women in sports on social media by evaluating machine learning (ML) models for identifying hate speech targeting women in sports in Arabic. A dataset of 7,487 Arabic tweets was collected, annotated, and pre-processed. Term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) and part-of-speech (POS) feature extraction techniques were used, and various ML algorithms were trained Random Forest consistently outperformed, achieving accuracy (85% and 84% using TF-IDF and POS, respectively) compared to other methods, demonstrating the effectiveness of both feature sets in identifying Arabic hate speech. The research contribution advances the understanding of online hate targeting Arabic women in sports by identifying various forms of such hate. The systematic creation of a meticulously annotated Arabic hate speech dataset, specifically focused on women's sports, enhances the dataset's reliability and provides valuable insights for future research in countering hate speech against women in sports. This dataset forms a strong foundation for developing effective strategies to address online hate within the unique context of women's sports. The research findings contribute to the ongoing efforts to combat hate speech against women in sports on social media, aligning with the objectives of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 and recognizing the significance of female participation in sports.

Reflexive meanings of global and local sports culture: Chinese female sports fandom in the context of glocalization

This article aims to explore the appreciation of transnational European football clubs by Chinese female sports fans and demonstrate the intersections between the global discourses of sport and the local patriarchal practices of Chinese society as they affect middle-class, educated Chinese women. By applying glocalization theories, feminization of sports fandom theories and qualitative research methods, the findings indicate that Chinese female sports fans construct reflexive meanings of global and local sports culture. The focus of this reflexivity centres on the confrontation of local nationalist patriarchy and its interplay with global neoliberal patriarchy, both of which Chinese female fans recognize as domains necessitating active resistance. Although the globalization of sports may marginalize women in sports fandom from the top down, Chinese women actively respond to and challenge the intersecting power structures by imbuing football culture with reflexive meanings.

"I Decked Myself Out in Pink"

"I Decked Myself Out in Pink"

Male and Female Sports Fans: Team Identification, Satisfaction With Team Performance, and Consumption Behavior

Male and Female Sports Fans: Team Identification, Satisfaction With Team Performance, and Consumption Behavior

Female fans and social media: micro-communities and the formation of social capital

ABSTRACT Research question Using the theoretical lens of social capital, this study explores the challenges faced by female football fans in performing their fandom on social media, and how they respond to these challenges in the way they consume and express their fandom within these online spaces. In doing so, the study responds to calls for further, empirical research on both the experiences of female sports fans and the darker side of social media. Research methods An exploratory, qualitative research design is adopted, comprising in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 15 female fans of European professional football clubs. Interview data is analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Results and findings The study contributes novel evidence to the fields of social media, social capital and football fandom, revealing that the male hegemony of football fandom is reinforced through social media. This leads to modified online behaviour by female fans, whereby micro-communities are formed in which they discuss football. The splintering of the online fan community into these micro-communities represents a form of cyberbalkanization and has implications for female fans’ ability to build bridging social capital on social media. Implications This study responds to calls for a more theoretically informed approach to social media research in sport, drawing on theories of social capital and performative sport fandom to understand the strategies employed by female fans in performing their fandom on social media. The findings raise questions of how professional sports clubs can engage female audiences and champion inclusive cultures of fandom.

Public Attitudes about Transgender Participation in Sports: The Roles of Gender, Gender Identity Conformity, and Sports Fandom

We examine the roles of gender, gender attitudes, and interest in sports on public attitudes about transgender people’s participation in athletics. Using a representative survey of 1020 adults in the United States from 2015 and after controlling for a variety of demographic, political, and attitudinal factors, we find that women, consistent with their gender identity, are more supportive than men of transgender athletes participating in sports. In addition, we find that individuals who hold traditional gender role beliefs and those who have greater gender identity conformity with their gender are less likely to support transgender athletes’ participation. The effects of gender identity conformity and beliefs in traditional gender roles are also conditioned by respondents’ gender. Sports fans are more likely to oppose transgender athletes’ participation, and female sports fans have views that resemble those of male sports fans. Finally, respondents who have contact with transgender people and those with stronger egalitarian attitudes are more favorable toward transgender participation whereas those espousing high moral traditionalism are more opposed. Our findings highlight areas of support and resistance to transgender athletes, and our work might be helpful to policymakers, as well as advocates, who promote inclusion.

Finding a Voice for Female Sports Fans in Online Spaces: A Case Study of the Greater Western Sydney Giants Football Club

Finding a Voice for Female Sports Fans in Online Spaces: A Case Study of the Greater Western Sydney Giants Football Club

Female fan experiences and interpretations of the 1958 Munich air disaster, the 1966 World Cup finals and the rise of footballers as sexualised national celebrities

The experiences of female sports fans have largely been neglected in academic research to date with socio-historical accounts focusing almost exclusively on male fans. Through an excavation of the sporting histories of female football fans this article aims to make one contribution towards changing this. Drawing on Glaser and Strauss’s ‘grounded theory’ approach, 21 semi-structured interviews were conducted with female football fans in England, aged between 50 and 80 years old. My findings begin by examining female fans’ memories of the 1958 Munich air disaster. I move on to examine female experiences and interpretations of the 1966 World Cup finals, before finally discussing the rise of football players in England as sexualised national celebrities. To conclude, I call for further socio-historical research to explore female experiences of football in earlier decades.

Female Sport Fans’ Experiences of Marginalization and Empowerment

Female sport fan research has been gaining momentum in recent years (e.g., Farrell, Fink, & Fields, 2011; Osborne & Coombs, 2013; Pope, 2011, 2013; Sveinson & Hoeber, 2015). Much of this research focuses on the marginalization that these sport fans experience (e.g., Crawford & Gosling, 2004; Jones, 2008; Sherlock & Elsden, 2000), with little attention given to experiences of empowerment. Therefore, this study sought to explore if female sport fans’ experiences involve marginalization, empowerment, or both and what contributes to these experiences. Multiple individual interviews were conducted with seven highly identified, displaced female sport fans. The data were analyzed through a three-step process involving open, axial, and selective coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). The findings demonstrated that the participants experience marginalization based on assumptions that women are inauthentic sport fans. They also felt empowered when they were able to demonstrate legitimacy and authenticity in their fanship.

Pinterest and Female Sport Fans: Gaining a Foothold in the Male-Dominated Sport World

Female sport fans account for over 45% of the fan base in some major professional sport leagues. This study analyzes every verified Pinterest account from teams in the 4 major North American sport leagues to investigate how teams use a social network consisting largely of female users to reach this growing target audience. The study finds that sport teams use Pinterest to promote purchasable items, share information about the team, highlight the fan experience, and share creative content—although to a lesser extent than the typical Pinterest user. Differences between leagues and details of content frames are discussed. Future directives for understanding how sport teams use Pinterest are presented, and the utility of visual framing for investigating new media is discussed.

Overlooking the obvious: an exploration of what it means to be a sport fan from a female perspective

While sport fans are demographically diverse, in current literature, sport fans appear to be a homogenous group consisting primarily of white, adult men. Thus, the current understanding of sport fan characteristics is based primarily on the perspectives of one segment of the fan market. The purpose of this study is to explore how female sport fans perceive and prioritise fan characteristics. In this pilot project, we interviewed nine women who self-identified as fans of the same Canadian Football League team. Data analysis consisted of organising, reading, rereading, coding, categorising and theming. According to the participants, a fan is one who legitimately enjoys the sport and the team, wears team colours and demonstrates positive support for the team. Knowledge and attendance were seen as secondary fan characteristics. The results suggest different perspectives on fanship from a female viewpoint.

‘There Are Some Daft People Out There!’: exploring female sport and media fandoms

Female sports fans have been largely marginalized in academic research, but this article makes one contribution towards changing this relative invisibility. Drawing on a ‘grounded theory’ approach, 85 semi-structured interviews were conducted with female football (soccer) and rugby union fans in the English city of Leicester. This article explores how these women position themselves in relation to stereotypes about female media/soap opera fans. Whilst some sports fans were keen to reaffirm hierarchies between sports and media fandoms, others emphasized the extant similarities between these different types of fandom, illustrating the heterogeneity of women's sporting experiences and the range of their interpretations of fandom. My findings concur with Schimmel et al.'s assertion (Schimmel et al. ‘Keep Your Fans to Yourself’, 593) that there is a need for greater ‘cross-fertilization’ between sports and media fandoms. This could help to prompt a move away from gendered hierarchies in research and move towards putting women's experiences as sports fans on the research agenda.

Exploring the experiences of female sport fans: A collaborative self-ethnography

Hegemonic masculinity would suggest that sport fandom is the exclusive domain of men and women are subordinate. Yet, it is apparent that women make up a significant portion of the professional sport spectator market. As such, it is important to systematically examine the role of hegemonic masculinity in the female sport fan experience. The purpose of this paper was to document, explore, and reflect upon personal experiences of female sport fans using a collaborative self-ethnography approach. Over a period of 3 months, we documented our experiences attending professional sport events (e.g., Major League Baseball, Canadian Football League) in the United States and Canada. Analysis of the data occurred through a process of sharing and critical reflection of our narratives. We identified three common themes that defined our experiences as female sport fans: (a) negotiating our definition of being a sport fan, (b) female sport fan as “the outsider”, and (c) marginalisation of other women. Our work provides some insight into the lived experiences of female sport fans. Discussion of the findings is intended to shed light on the conversation regarding hegemonic masculinity within the sport fan literature.

Gendered Pleasures, Power, Limits, and Suspicions: Exploring the Subjectivities of Female Supporters of Australian Rules Football

Abstract Feminist sports histories have sought to give voice to the experiences and subjectivities of female athletes and increasingly of female sports fans. Yet the passions of female sports fans have been neglected. This paper traces the affects and subjectivities of female followers of Australian Rules football by way of indepth interviews along with the writings of, and about, female fans. More specifically, it contrasts the relatively inclusive passions fostered by the spectator culture of Australian Rules football with the gendered limits around the possible dreams this sport provokes, before turning to the supposedly “feminine” fantasies of female fans, and concluding with a coda on the problematic intersections of football and sex. Writing the passions of female sports fans into feminist histories of sport allows for a richer understanding of the layered historical interplay of gender and sexuality with the intriguing pleasures and power at the center of popular sporting cultures.

The role of physical education and other formative experiences of three generations of female football fans

The experiences of female sports fans have been largely marginalised in academic research to date and little research has examined the formative sporting experiences of female spectators. This article draws on 51 semi-structured interviews with three generations of female fans of one (men's) professional football club (Leicester City), to consider the extent to which sports participation at school and elsewhere influences female football fandom, and also explores the influence of the family in channelling young females into or away from sport. We begin by examining the extent to which women had opportunities to experience football at school and how the type of school they attended affected these opportunities. We consider continuities and discontinuities between each generation's experiences by examining the influence of sexist teachers, the ubiquity of what the women viewed as ‘body conscious girls’ and the effects of peer pressure. Finally, we examine the ways in which families obstructed or facilitated young females' interest in football, and the importance of mainly male role models within and beyond the family. We conclude with some reflections on feminist praxis and its relevance for young people's formative sporting experiences.

Beyond irrationality and the ultras: some notes on female English rugby union fans and the ‘feminised’ sports crowd

In the Academy, female fandom is often conceived of in ways which consciously exclude sport, and women are often marginalised by research on sports fandom. There is also little convincing qualitative research on the experience of mainstream female sports spectators, despite competing claims about the meaning and nature of today’s alleged ‘feminised’ sports crowds. Much of the qualitative work which does exist in this field focuses on younger male soccer fans and pathologises, the experience of female spectators. Instead, in this paper we explore the experiences of mainstream female fans from a sport which is much under‐researched, English rugby union. Drawing on qualitative data from semi‐structured interviews with female rugby union fans from Leicester, we explore these women’s fan experiences in the context of claims about the recent ‘feminisation’ of the late‐modern sports crowd. We focus empirically on three key issues: the early sports encounters of female spectators and their possible links with fandom; changes in women’s access to leisure time and to spectator sport; and women’s shifting experiences of watching rugby union in the new ‘professional’ era of the game. We end with a call for more qualitative work on the changing experience of female sports fans and for more theoretical and empirical work on the supposed ‘feminised’ sporting cultures of late‐modernity.

"White shoes to a football match!": Female experiences of football's golden age in England

Although many British historians claim that English football in the post-World War II period was substantially the passion of working-class men, oral history accounts also reveal a largely hidden history of active female sports fans, women who keenly followed football. These female fans often faced opposition from fellow supporters and from other women. In many ways, academic research on sports fandom has worked to omit serious discussion of the role of women. Taken from a wider project aimed at making more visible the historical experiences of female spectators in sport in Britain, this paper draws on interviews with 16 older female fans of the Leicester City football club based in the East Midlands in England. It explores their experiences in the so-called golden age of the game with regard to the football stadium, styles of female support, and relationships with and perceptions of football players. Via oral history research, the paper offers a wider context for understanding the sporting experiences of female fans. But it also analyzes and explicates the meaning of sport in the lives of female fans during a period when football players were paradoxically glamorous and unobtainable local figures, but also, in some contexts, still accessible, ordinary members of local communities.

‘Like pulling down Durham Cathedral and building a brothel’: Women as ‘new consumer’ fans?

The experiences of female sports fans have been largely marginalized in academic research. This article aims to bring women’s experiences as sports fans to the fore. It also explores assumptions of homogeneity which seem to underlie much research on male and female fans. This has perhaps led to a gendered binary whereby female sports fans are often depicted as ‘new consumer’ fans and are perceived as ‘inauthentic’ in their support. Drawing on Glaser and Strauss’s (2008) ‘grounded theory’ approach, 51 semi-structured interviews were conducted with female football fans in the East Midlands city of Leicester in England. This article focuses on two themes which emerged from this research: women, football and a sense of place; and women and stadium modernization. These findings begin to explore some of the complexities of female fan attachment and emphasize the need to examine the diversity of women’s experiences as sports fans. I propose that future research on sports fandom would benefit from a greater sensitivity to heterogeneity in both men’s and women’s experiences.

Perceptions of Sport Fans: An Exploratory Investigation Based on Aggressive and Cheating Propensities

This exploratory investigation examined female non sport fans’ (NSFs) impressions of male and female sport fans (SFs) who were supporting either a male or female sextyped sport. Based on the basic tenets of contemporary models of person perception (Bodenhausen et al., 2007; Brewer, 1988; Devine, 1989; Fiske & Neuberg, 1990), we predicted that processes of stereotyping would take place amongst our sample of female NSFs so that masculine elements (i.e., gender and sex‐typing) would foster negative perceptions of SFs, whereas feminine elements would yield positive perceptions. To this end, 176 female students (Mage = 20.31 years) completed scales assessing their perceptions of a sport fan described in one of four hypothetical scenarios (i.e., female SF supporting a female or male sport and male SF supporting a male or female sport). As expected, the results of a MANOVA indicated that female SFs supporting a female sport were perceived more positively (i.e., as less likely to engage in deviant behaviors such as aggression and cheating). In addition, participants identified themselves more strongly with female SFs supporting a female sport than with SFs of the other three groups. These findings are discussed in terms of the literature on sports stereotypes and literature on the media.

팀동일시 수준에 따른 여성 스포츠팬의 동기요인이 재관람의도 및 구전의도에 미치는 영향

The current study sought to acknowledge the female sport fan as a sport marketing segment. In order to do so, female sport consumption motivation was identified and among motivation factors, factors effecting re-attend intention and word of mouth intention according to level of team identification was identified. In order to accomplish the purpose a focus group interview was conducted concerning female sport fans, and a survey took place in Korean Pro-sport event collecting 300 data. Among 300 data 248 data were used for the analysis. Using Lisrel 8.7 and SPSS 15.0 correlation analysis, descriptive analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis was conducted. The results of study are as follows, First, 9 female sport consumption motivation was identified and among these factors, skill, achievement, drama, and escape had a positive effect on re-attend intension. Second, among 9 female sport consumption motivations skill, achievement, and social factor had a positive effect on word of mouth intention. Third, among the motivation factors, factors effecting re-attend intention had difference on the level of team identification. Forth, among the motivation factors, factors effecting word of mouth intention had difference on the level of team identification.