Elisabet Apelmo
Dept. of Sociology, Lund University
This article deals with the construction of femininity among female football players. The issue focuses on how girls, competing in a typically male sports, talk about and look upon themselves. The data has been derived from participant observations of a Swedish female football team, as well as from open-ended interviews with seven of the players, between 15 and 18 years old. The following aspects are discussed: Why the girls originally began to play football; their present motivation for continuing to play, their talk about the differences between women’s and men’s football; and how playing football influences the construction of femininity. I argue that the way these girls conduct themselves both physically and mentally, destabilises the feminine norm, thereby allowing a shift to occur. Rather than remaining objects for other’s gazes, they are transformed into acting subjects.
Copyright © Elisabet Apelmo 2005.
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”Ever since I was a kid, it’s always been football.”