fan scene

The football fan scene. No place for girls?! 

The situation of women in football has changed tremendously over the past decades. Nowadays girls and women participate in football clubs and discover it as a sport worthy to play. Playing football is not as gender-associated as it was.
Since a couple of years the number of female attendances on football matches rises. Especially in active fan structures this admission is visible. But in the male dominated fan scene it is not as easy to participate and to be accepted as one may think. Respect and acceptance for female fans develops slowly and it needs a lot of staying power and assertiveness of the persons concerned. Female fans are still a marginalized group. The “typical fan” is male, white (1) and heterosexual.
The role of women in fan structures and the expectations on them are contradictory. On the one hand they should be the sweet and innocent escort of the “real fans” (men), on the other hand attitude and behavior should base on the male habitus. Female fans need to be as masculine and butch as they can be, a female performance is not allowed in most of the German stands if you “really” want to support your team. In some of the so called “ultra groups” (2) women are even forbidden since it is all about the support of the team which is supposed to be unfeminine and infeasible for girls.
In some stadia the infrastructure claims assimilation to male standards. Facilities for women are basically inexistent, beer is the main beverage and most of the securities are male themselves. Authorized fan agents are in mostly any case men, there are hardly any fan projects for girls or women only.
In male football one often notices sexist declarations to insult players or other fans. Weather it’s the guy next to you affronting players of the other team or the choreography of a fan or ultra group. Sexist slogans are usually not criticized by (other) fans or clubs. It is an unwritten law that sexism and male football, especially the fan scene are somehow connected. Sexism and the discrimination and marginalization of female fans is still not as discussed as it should be. The issue gains publicity only slowly. But there is some light in the dark. Some fan initiatives and other fan structures or clubs try to raise awareness for the problem of sexism and the male dominated football world. Some fan groups call themselves anti-sexist and hope to sensitize other fans by anti-sexist choreographies, pamphlets or exhibitions.
During events like the upcoming European Championship in mens football the problem of sexism does not dissolve, it is only expressed in other ways. Since there is no competition of different e.g. German teams but of countries it is easier to participate for women in the overall hysteria. As long as you belong to that certain nationality is doesn't matter what kind of gender expression you have to be a part of the collective, especially because it is often more about the support of the country than about the sport itself.
In the following we try to give an overview over sexism in the football fan scene, how it is expressed and how people try to counter it. The report will mainly deal with German fans, since the structure of fan support and role of football in general differs a lot from e.g. the United States.





1White here used as a social category, not necessarily a color of skin.
2 A special form of organization of fatanic football fans, deriving from Italy in the 1950s. For more information check Giovanni Francesio - TIFARE CONTRO: Eine Geschichte der italienischen Ultras or Die Ultras: Fußballfans und Fußballkulturen in Deutschland by Jonas Gabler.