Free to be a football star
Katie Herzog at The Stranger says Women’s Soccer is a Very Dykey Sport:
There’s a couple of major differences between women’s soccer and men’s soccer. One: The U.S. women are good at it. Two, women’s soccer is a hell of a lot gayer.
Yesterday, “content producer” Alex Binley from ITV News published an article about why, exactly, so many dykes excel at this sport.
Binley says it’s because there’s so much homophobia in the male version.
It’s hard to argue with that. Outside of the U.S., Canada, and a few other countries, soccer is both the most popular and the butchest sport on the block. Games tend to hyper-masculine environments, which are not exactly the most welcoming of men who don’t fit contemporary gender stereotypes.
While women who don’t fit contemporary gender stereotypes are freed up to play great football.
Because all homosexual men are limp-wristed, mincing, queens.
Funny dat, because as an Australian follower of our indigenous football game, soccer looks very “feminine” and not at all “manly”. The acting, the diving, the whole overblown theatrics when any contact is made makes soccer players look like “girly boys”.
I cannot speak for USA, but I suspect that in Australia some of the homosexual appearances of soccer players was due to their being European immigrants (Italian, Greek) where male emotions are not as suppressed as in Anglo cultures. Euro males were quite open with the embrace of celebration whilst us Anglos would politely clap and say “Well played” then get on with the game.
I find it interesting that there is always a lot of rumour about Lesbianism in top-level female sport and wonder if it is true, or if it is driven by male sexual fantasies. Or male inadequacies, as if no “true female” could excel at sport. In the recently formed professional Womens’ AFL, two team captains (oddly, the team I support and the team I most hate) are captained by Lesbians, but who cares? They are bloody good at the game and great to watch.
There is also one player whose physical attributes give her the appearance of a stereotypical “bull dyke”, but she is hetro. She is one of the few women I have seen play AFL who could knock Hannah Mouncey on his arse without raising a sweat.
chigau – where the hell did you get that? From “Games tend to hyper-masculine environments, which are not exactly the most welcoming of men who don’t fit contemporary gender stereotypes”? But what on earth leads you to think I see men who don’t fit contemporary gender stereotypes as all “limp-wristed, mincing, queens”? Do I seriously strike you as a big fan of contemporary gender stereotypes and hostile to men who don’t fit them?
Roj – who cares? Lesbians, for one. That’s Herzog’s point of view. She’s not saying ew lesbians in football, it’s more like hooray for football having all these glorious lesbians.
OB, I agree.
My “who cares?” was my clumsy way of saying that as a spectator, not a participant, the sexuality of players is of no concern to me. I understand that participants would have a different POV.
Ah, right, sorry. Nuance failure.
I care myself because I quite like to see lesbians take over. I’m a bit lesbian-envious.
A lot of women’s sports have the reputation of being over-represented with lesbians–golf, tennis, and basketball come to mind. Whereas the only men’s sport I can think of with a reputation of being overly gay is figure skating (and conversely, women figure skaters don’t have the reputation of being lesbian).
And perhaps the explanation lies there. Like any sport, figure skating requires an extremely high level of physical skill, practice, and dedication, but the conversation around it tends to focus on beauty and grace much more than in other sports. So it fits the feminine stereotype much more than sports like soccer.
Ophelia, #4:
If that attitude was adopted by the players and followers of the men’s game tomorrow, so many closet doors would be simultaneously kicked off their hinges they would create a bang far louder than Krakatoa did when it erupted.
Ophelia, I believe Chigau’s comment was pointed at the root of the (male) homophobia that exists in sport; i.e., that ‘real men’ know that fags fit the quoted description, and so have no place on the field. I didn’t see it as implying anything about what *you* thought.
A few years back a Russian orthodox priest said that brightly coloured soccer/football footwear was a “homosexual abomination,” so there’s that.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jul/08/russia-world-cup-priest-boots-homosexual-abomination
I’d only call it an abomination if the shoe colours clashed with the team uniforms, but that’s just me.