Two glaring omissions in the research on sports fans are on women fans and on how people become fans. In this paper we begin to address both of these issues by examining how women become fans of Australian rules football (AFL). From data generated in single-person and focus group interviews with women AFL supporters conducted in Victoria and NSW, we use their accounts to map-out four ways in which they became fans. We show that at the heart of each of these paths to fandom are the close ties that the women formed in their social networks – either as children through their kin, or later in life through others that entered their networks. Women become fans, we argue, because of the strong social ties that they have with people who are existing fans.
History
Event
Australian Sociological Association. Conference (2008 : Melbourne, Vic.)
Publisher
University of Melbourne
Location
Melbourne, Vic.
Place of publication
Melbourne, Vic.
Start date
2008-12-02
End date
2008-12-05
ISBN-13
9780734039842
Language
eng
Publication classification
E1 Full written paper - refereed
Title of proceedings
TASA 2008 : Re-imagining sociology : the Annual Conference of The Australian Sociological Association