The female football spectator in England, 1870–1914: a Flaneuse made visible?

ABSTRACT

Flanerie has recently undergone a conceptual expansion to include other observations of modernity, incorporating the flaneuse, a female equivalent in late nineteenth/early twentieth century cities. This scholarship makes a convincing case that public (masculine) spaces and domestic (feminine) spaces were not so mutually exclusive as to preclude a female presence within cities. A flaneuse could (within certain limitations) experience the city, producing observations based on this. Previous work related to flanerie has mainly concentrated on ‘high’ culture, including art criticism and literary production. This paper links the flaneuse to female football spectators at male professional football matches in England from c1800–1914, an expansion of the concept into popular culture, connected to other instances manifested in music halls and department store shopping. It also relates the journalistic observations of female football spectators and reporters as flaneuses, a form of literary production, which contrasts with the literature of ‘high’ culture previously analysed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Call for papers for special issue on the flaneuse for Wagadu: a Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies, Fall/Winter 2009.

2. Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life; Tester, ‘Introduction’, 1–4, 8, 15–18; and Benjamin, Charles Baudelaire.

3. Frisby, ‘The Flaneur in Social Theory’, 82, 87–88, 90–95; Mazlish, ‘The Flaneur: from Spectator to Representation’, 47, 57; Burton, The Flaneur and His City; and Smart, ‘Digesting the Modern Diet’, 160–168.

4. Vickery, ‘Golden Age to Separate Spheres?’ 383–393, 401; Kerber, ‘Separate Sphere, Female Worlds, Woman’s Place’, 9–39; and Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes.

5. Wolff, ‘Women’s Knowledge and Women’s Art’, 72; and Wolff, ‘Feminism and Modernism’, 58.

6. Wolff, ‘Culture of Separate Spheres’, 12–13, 17, 22.

7. Wolff, ‘Invisible Flaneuse’, 34–50.

8. Wolff, ‘The Artist and the Flaneur’, 124–126, 129–130.

9. Pollock, ‘Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity’, 67–68, 71, 79; Nochlin, ‘Afterword’, 173; and Ferguson, ‘The Flaneur on and off the Streets of Paris’, 22–23, 27–30, 33–39.

10. Nava, ‘Modernity’s Disavowal’, 40; Wolff, ‘Gender and the Haunting of Cities’, 21–27; and D’Souza and McDonough, ‘Introduction’ 1–17.

11. Parsons, Streetwalking the Metropolis, 1–8, 15, 21, 41–43, 46–53, 82–87, 92, 110–112; and Vicinus, Independent Women; Vicinus, Widening Sphere.

12. Wilson, Sphinx and the City, 6, 10, 30–31, 56–58; Wilson, ‘Invisible Flaneur’, 90–110; Wilson, ‘Rhetoric of Urban Space’, 146–160; Walkowitz, City of Dreadful Delight, 15–21, 24–31, 41, 45, 65, 68; and Thomas, ‘Women in Public’.

13. Rappaport, Shopping for Pleasure, 3–7, 11–14, 74–77, 93, 100–102, 180–182, 219–222; Tickner, The Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffrage Campaign, 1907–1914, quoted in Rappaport Shopping for Pleasure, 219; Abelson, When Ladies Go A-thieving, Introduction and chs. 1 and 2; Iskin, ‘The Flaneuse in French Fin-de-Siecle Posters’, 113–128.

14. Nead, Victorian Babylon, 62–67; and Thomas, ‘Women in Public’, 32–48.

15. Wann, Melnick, Russell and Pease, Sport Fans, 2–9, 23–24.

16. Dunn, Female Football Fans, 2–3, 6–7, 59, 65–66; and Chiwese, ‘One of the boys’, 211–214.

17. Pope, ‘Durham Cathedral’, 1–4, 7–10, 13; Pope, ‘Love of my Life’, 176–178, 181–183, 188–191; Giulanotti, ‘Supporters, Followers’; and Correia and Esteves, ‘Explanatory Study’, 577, 584–588.

18. Dunn, Female Football Fans, 109–110; Toffoletti, ‘Iranian Women’; Lennais and Pfister, ‘Gender Constructions’, 158, 161–165, 169–173, 177; Chiwese, ‘One of the boys’, 212, 216–219; and Cere, ‘Forever Ultras’, 46–49.

19. Pope and Williams, ‘White Shoes’, 2.2, 4.1–4.9, 5–7; Lewis, ‘Our Lady Specialists’; Field, ‘Stoic Observers’, 13–16, 21–24; Crawford and Gosling, ‘Puck Bunny’; and Allon, ‘Ladies Stand’, 29–31.

20. Mason, Association Football; Russell, Football and the English; Vamplew, Pay up and Play the Game; Taylor, Association Game; Lewis, ‘Professional Football and Identity’, 141–178; Mason, Sport in Britain, 46–52; Jackson, Provincial Press, 180–191; Tischler, Footballers and Businessmen; and Pope, ‘A Class Thing’.

21. Lewis, ‘Development of Professional Football’; Lewis, ‘Our Lady Specialists’; and Russell, Football and the English, 57.

22. Deem, All Work and No Play, 1, 4–7, 12–13, 44; Hargreaves, Sporting Females, 26–27, 35–39, 141; Parratt, ‘Little Means or Time’, 22–53; and Parratt, More Than Mere Amusement, 8–9, 83–146.

23. Langhamer, ‘Manchester Women and Their Leisure’, 32–42; Langhamer, Women’s Leisure in England, 25, 49–53, 88–104, 129, 133; Davies, Leisure, Gender and Poverty, ix, xii, xiii, 3, 5–6, 10–13, 35–38, 43–44, 55–56, 63, 73–74, 81–86, 171; Parratt, ‘Little Means or Time’, 22–53; Parratt, More Than Mere Amusement, 8–9, 83–146. Chinn, They Worked Hard, 88–99, 117; Griffiths, Lancashire Working Classes, 222–223, 237–245, 251–266; Walton, Lancashire 294–299; Lewis, ‘Development of Professional Football’; Liddington and Norris, One Hand, 47–55, 91, 97, 276; Lewis, ‘Our Lady Specialists’; Mason, Association Football, 149–150; Russell, Football and the English, 57; Hoher, ‘Music Hall Audiences’; and Dyhouse, Girls Growing Up, 105–7.

24. Blackburn Times, 30 October 1880; Blackburn Standard, 4 December 1880; Preston Herald, 10 October 1883; Football Field, 28 February 1885, 20 November 1886, 14 May 1889, 8 November 1890, 8 September 1906; unidentified newspaper report quoted in Taw, Manchester United’s Golden Age, 117; Blackburn Rovers cuttings scrapbook, Blackburn Public Library; Lewis, ‘Our Lady Specialists’ for other examples of female attendance; and Pope, ‘A Class Thing’.

25. Dunn, Female Football Fans; Pope, ‘Durham Cathedral’; Pope and Williams, ‘White Shoes’; Lewis, ‘Professional Football and Identity’; and Lewis, ‘Development of Professional Football’.

26. Athletic News, 28 March 1882, quoted in Tischler, Footballers and Businessmen, 39; Blackburn Standard, 24 December 1880, 24 February 1883; Darwen News, 27 March 1880; Football Field, 27 September 1887, 18 May 1889; Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 5 March 1888, quoted in Mason, Association Football, 159; Preston Herald, 12 January 1884; Dunn, Female Football Fans, 59, 65–66; Pope, ‘Durham Cathedral’, 1–4, 7–10; Pope, ‘Love of My Life’, 176–178; Pope and Williams, ‘White Shoes’, 6; Correia and Esteves, ‘Explanatory Study’, 577, 581, 584; and Chiwese, ‘One of the boys’, 211–214.

27. Football Field, 15 November 1905; and Koven, Slumming, 151–155.

28. Football Field, 19 September, 3 October, 5 December 1891. See Lewis, ‘Our Lady Specialists’ for other examples.

29. Football Field, 17, 24, 31 October 1891; Toffoletti, ‘Iranian Women’, 84–85; and Dunn, Female Football Fans, 109–110.

30. Football Field, 14, 21, 25 November, 19, 26 December 1891; Dunn, Female Football Fans, 64–65, 110; and Toffoletti, ‘Iranian Women’, 82.

31. Dunn, Female Football Fans, 1–3, 21, 108–110.