Sport and Its Female Fans

Why do women follow sports? How do they participate from the sidelines and what is the significance of this contribution? What can female fandom tell us about gender relations in sport? This book explores these and related questions by bringing together the varied strands of research being conducted internationally across the social sciences and humanities on this emerging and topical field. While sports spectatorship is a popular and well-respected site of analysis, no book-length, scholarly contribution documents women's experiences of sports fandom. For this reason, there is an obvious need for a book that offers researchers, students and non-professional readers an authoritative introduction to women's modes of sport support. Sport and Its Female Fans will be a landmark contribution in the field of sport research and in studies of sports fandom, making an original contribution to the growing, yet under-researched, area of female sports spectators.

Kim Toffoletti is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Gender Studies at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. Peter Mewett is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Gender Studies at Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.

Introduction Peter Mewett and Kim Toffoletti 1. Stoic Observers or Fanatic Fans? Women Ice Hockey Spectators in 1930s North America Russell Field 2. The Ladies Stand Fiona Allon 3. 'Forever Ultras': Female Football Support in Italy Rinella Cere 4. Women Fans of the Rodeo: Circuit Friends, Helpmates and Buckle Bunnies Carol Y. Thompson and Craig J. Forsyth 5. The Meaning of Sport in the Lives of "Hot" and "Cool" Female Fans of Football and Rugby Union Stacey Pope 6. "Oh Yes, He Is Hot": Female Football Fans and the Sexual Objectification of Sportsmen's Bodies Kim Toffoletti and Peter Mewett 7. Fantasy, Fun and Identity Construction Among Female Fans of Rugby Union Camilla Obel 8. Reading the Commodified Female Sports Fan: Interrogating Strategic Dirt and Characterization in Commercial Narratives Lawrence A. Wenner 9: How Do Women Talk Sports? Women Sports Fans in a Blog Community Marie Hardin and Erin Whiteside 10. Empowerment Through Sport? Female Fans, Women's Sport, and the Construction of Gendered Fandom Lindsey Meân