Football, Family, Gender and Identity by Hanya Pielichaty

Author:Hanya Pielichaty [Pielichaty, Hanya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Gender Studies, Sports & Recreation, General, Cultural & Social Aspects
ISBN: 9781000412208
Google: m-QsEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-05-12T01:02:59+00:00

Unlike players in the U13 group, younger girls were very forward about being categorised as a tomboy: a definition for these players that consolidated their status as footballer. The phrase ‘tomboy’ was potentially straightforward for the players but their understanding of gender was not. These players were inventive with their approach to gender understanding and attempted to find better ways to describe who they were. Harriet defined her tomboy character in connection with enjoying typically masculine toys and liking gruesome creatures such as zombies. Charlotte simply stated she was a tomboy because she played football; it was a very simple equation for her. Lindsey enjoyed doing her hair, associating beauty and appearance with typically feminine signifiers of girlie girl. When Lindsey struggled to process the relationship between girlie girl and footballer, Harriet offered her a solution in the form of ‘tombirl’. The tombirl identity, through further discussions with Harriet, was something that she had heard about at school and related, in her words, to girls who ‘wear dresses and like zombies’. Harriet also used the concept of ‘tomgoy’, which seemed synonymous with tombirl.

It must be noted that the majority of players used the phrase ‘tomboy’ or ‘girlie girl’ without prompt which implied the phrases remained heavily ingrained in contemporary girlhood discourse. A similar suggestion appeared in the school group discussions (U13), whereby the girls presented the phrase tomgirl to describe a girl who shared characteristics of both a tomboy and a girlie girl. Rebecca stated, ‘I wouldn’t say I’m a girlie girl but I wouldn’t say I’m a tomboy’, the traditional gender dichotomy for some girls was just not workable. It is very clear that girls are searching for creative means to define their gendered selves as the notion of a straightforward tomboy or girlie girl was too restrictive, alien and unfamiliar.

Lisa (U15) described herself as ‘very tomboy’ and her football participation neatly tied in with this understanding of herself. This was more difficult to define for some girls, however:

I hate it when people call you tomboy because just because you play sport doesn’t mean you’re a tomboy. You don’t walk around wearing boy’s clothes, you don’t act like a boy but you just like to do sports that any other person can play.

(Sophie School U13)

Sophie was frustrated by the assumption that being sporty equated with being a tomboy; she later described herself as a girlie girl who liked to play sports. Instead of the notion of girlie girl being equated with dresses and shopping Sophie instead connected it to sports participation.

Older girls Miley (U15) and Maise (U17) described their team as a ‘mixture’ of girls, and both believed that any type of girl could play football. Alysha (U17) stated that: ‘I’m quite girlie girl outside of football’, which perhaps indicated her sense of identity movement in relation to being a footballer and being girlie. Zoe (U17) described herself as both sporty and girlie in that she liked wearing dresses and make-up outside of participating in sport. Zoe reported that

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