‘Didn’t know she could shout that loud’: the performance of fandom among women followers of women’s golf

ABSTRACT

While a growing body of evidence exists around women fans of men’s sport, less is known about women fans’ perspectives and identities in relation to women’s sport, and what is known tends to focus on homogenous representations of sports fans, rather than a diversity of fan types and follower styles. Building on the authors’ previous appraisals of the Solheim Cup – the biggest event in women’s golf – this paper examines fan performances of women at the 2019 event in Scotland. Twenty-five white women from the UK/Europe were recruited via social media before, during and after the Solheim Cup, with online interviews taking place in the following days. Using performative sports fandom as a framework, the authors seek to examine women fan performances at a major women’s sporting event. The analysis of the interviews resulted in three themes around (1) friendship, care and connection, (2) negotiated fan performances and (3) distinctive fan performances. While it must be acknowledged that this is a homogenous group of fans, it is hoped that this research will add to the understanding of the diversity and complexity of fan identities.

KEYWORDS:

• Fandom
• fans
• gender
• golf
• women fans

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to acknowledge the MIC Limerick Research and Graduate School seed funding scheme.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Niamh Kitching

Niamh Kitching is a Lecturer in Physical Education at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick. Her research interests include the sociology of sport and PE, and gender and sport. Her published research focuses on female athletes and coaches, and their participation and presentation in sports and sports media.

Ali Bowes

Ali Bowes is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Sport at Nottingham Trent University. Having completed her PhD at Loughborough University, her research primarily takes a feminist approach. Her published work focuses primarily on qualitative investigations on elite and/or professional female athletes and elite women’s sport cultures, including their self and mediatised presentations, and considerations of national level representation.

Stuart Whigham

Stuart Whigham is a Senior Lecturer in Sport, Coaching and Physical Education in the Department of Sport, Health Sciences and Social Work at Oxford Brookes University. Stuart’s research interests in the sociology and politics of sport focus on: national identity, nationalism and sport; the politics of sport and sporting events; the politics of the Commonwealth Games; and the sociology and politics of Scottish sport.

Alan Bairner

Alan Bairner is Professor of Sport and Social Theory at Loughborough University. His main research interest is the politics of sport with a particular focus on sport and national identities.