Football and femininity. A phenomenological study of gender, football and motivation seen from a female perspective in a sociocultural context

Abstract

Football is in Norway today the most popular sport across genders. Football is also a very male dominated arena because of its masculine features and because the masculine has for a long period been seen as a male trait. The females have since the day they entered this environment been exposed to the men’s embodiment of football and have therefore been working as the other. This again is shown through many aspects, and the recognition of female football is missing especially among media and in popularity of audiences. The female football players are also struggling with being compared to the male players when it comes to their abilities and body as a football player. In light of this I could not understand how the females are attracted to football and why so many of them are motivated to continue playing.

Through my field work and the development of my thesis I have tried to look at the females’ motivation in this male dominated environment through a phenomenological perspective. This allowed me to look deeper in the embodiment of the female players in football and how their experience with the game might motivate them to continue. We look at this from a sociocultural perspective where the gender is cultivated into their habitus through the social experience. Through the phenomenological perspective I have tried to deconstruct the discourse of gender in the environment to understand the positive experience of playing and to understand football on its own premises in a female society

In this ethnographic documentary, you will gain an insight in a female football community in the town of Tromsø in Northern Norway. The team named Fløya is facing a new season, recovering from one of their worst season the year before. After regular games lost and finally ending up degraded, the team is now focusing on returning to the national league. Here we meet the girls and get a close look on how they experienced their latest season and get their perspective of being female footballers. You get an insight in their own thoughts of why football is worth playing and why they love the sport. We get to see their journey through the season and see how they try to turn failure into success.

The movie is not available here, but if you wish access you can send an email to vcs-filmarchive@hsl.uit.no.