Tivoli-tussen And Girls In Football Kits – Female Fan Cultures In Men’s Football1

1. Going to the game Petra is on her way to the stadium. As soon as she enters the tube it feels as if she’s already there: She’s one fan amongst fans, everything around her is red and white, excited and ready to party. At the end of the ride, police have cordoned off the platform and are escorting 1 This article is a translated and slightly abridged version of our contribution to the volume Arena der Männlichkeit. Über das Verhältnis von Fußball und Geschlecht, edited by Eva Kreisky and Georg Spitaler and published at German Campus Verlag in 2006. Esporte e Sociedade ano 3, n.9, Jul.2008/Out.2008 Tivoli-Tussen and girls in football kits Selmer/Sülzle the group to the stadium. As if by magic, the masses are gender-separated at the turnstiles, because since lately there are different entrances for men and women, that is a bit bothersome actually, because conversations are interrupted and groups get separated. But after being searched, they walk together again. Petra says hello to all her friends and talks to the people standing in the same area. The players come on the pitch and every hassle of the week is instantly forgotten. The only thing that counts is the game ahead. From the stands you can hear: “Ref, you fag.” Together with the bratwurst and beer, superstition is being handed around: surely there will be a goal in the next 20 minutes … and yes, there it is, everyone raises their arms, screams, sings and embraces. Petra is happy, the rest of the world is lost in the moment. One of the charms of stadium football is the diversity of the fans. Different people from different classes who want only one thing: seeing their team win. The guy in the home kit with all the se-on patches and the guy in the suit, the sales agent in the next seat and the bank manager in the VIP-lounge, the retired dustman and the student. And then there are the many women who also want only one thing: seeing their team win. And just as the men they are different in their way of being a fan. One has twenty scarves knotted around her arms and a beer in one hand, the other girl has the name of her favourite player written on her cheek. One has prepared herself with reading the latest football news on the internet, the next has been drinking in the pub with her pals and another one comes straight from the office. Why do women and men go to football games? Because they’re interested in the game and because they like the atmosphere. A football stadium is a world on its own, it has its own culture and rules and these rules follow a male grammar and are formed according to the football-biography of the young male spectator. There is, at least a temporary exclusion of women through sexism and degradation. It’s only the men who piss behind the bus after an away game after all toilets have been made unusable. Now, at the latest, it is nice to have.