‘Lesbian community’ in Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) spaces

Abstract

This paper explores the investment in the discursive and spatial construct of ‘lesbian community’. This ‘community’ is identifiable through the social spaces of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), where sport and community are connected descriptively and interpretively. To do so, this paper discursively examines fan comments that define WNBA spaces as sites of community. This conversation is situated within the material and discursive context of these spaces, which are continuously remapped as heteronormative by the WNBA. Consequently, this paper concludes that uses of ‘lesbian community’ discourse within heteronormatively coded spaces points to a key strategy of creating safe spaces in an oppressive social climate. Moreover, ‘community’ discourse can be read as an assertion of empowerment in a time and place when lesbian spaces have been integrated and sometimes dissolved into the urban landscape, and when there is no clearly identifiable ‘lesbian space’.

Cet article propose un examen de l'investissement dans la construction à la fois discursive et spatiale de la «communauté lesbienne». Cette communauté se distingue par les espaces sociaux de la ligue américaine professionnelle de basket-ball féminin (la WNBA), où les sports et la communauté sont reliés tant au niveau descriptif qu'interprétatif. Une étude discursive, présentée dans cet article, traite les commentaires recueillis auprès de partisans qui définissent les espaces de la WNBA comme des sites communautaires. Cette conversation se situe dans le cadre matériel et discursif de ces espaces, lesquels sont sans cesse re-cartographiés par la WNBA comme étant hétéronormatifs. Cet article se termine donc en montrant qu'une des principales stratégies qui entoure les usages du discours sur la «communauté lesbienne» au sein des espaces codés par l'hétéronormativité est la création d'espaces sûrs au milieu d'un climat social oppressant. Par ailleurs, le discours «communautaire» peut être compris comme une affirmation d'une montée en puissance à un moment et dans un lieu donnés lorsque des espaces lesbiens ont été intégrés et parfois dissous dans le paysage urbain, et lorsqu'un «espace lesbien» n'a pas été clairement distingué.

Este artículo explora la inversión en la construcción discursiva y espacial de ‘la comunidad lesbiana’. Esta comunidad puede ser identificada a través de los espacios sociales del Women's National Basketball Association—WNBA (la Asociación Nacional de Baloncesto Femenino) donde hay una conexión descriptiva e interpretativa entre el deporte y la comunidad. Con este fin, el artículo examina discursivamente las observaciones de aficionados que definen los espacios del WNBA como sitios de comunidad. Esta conversación se sitúa dentro del contexto material y discursivo de estos espacios, los cuales son continuamente remapeados como heteronormativos por el WNBA. Por consiguiente, este artículo concluye que el uso del discurso de ‘la comunidad lesbiana’ dentro de espacios codificados como heteronormativos señala una estrategia clave de crear espacios seguros en un clima social opresivo. Además, discurso ‘comunitario’ puede ser interpretado como una reafirmación del empoderamiento en un tiempo y lugar en que los espacios lésbicos se ven integrados y hasta se han desvanecido, en algunos casos, en el paisaje urbano, y cuando no hay un ‘espacio lésbico’ claramente identificable.

Keywords:

• lesbian
• community
• heteronormative
• WNBA

Keywords:

• lesbienne
• communauté
• hétéronormatif
• WNBA

Keywords:

• lesbiana
• comunidad
• heteronormativo
• WNBA

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following for their thoughtful contributions to this paper: Kath Browne, George Henderson, Larry Knopp, Michael Brown, Eileen Wood and three anonymous reviewers. I would also like to thank the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship in Women's Studies and the University of Minnesota Geography Department for their assistance in funding this research.

Notes

 1 Interview respondents received pseudonyms to protect their identities.

 2 Though the WNBA has distributed lengthy surveys several times during previous seasons, information regarding sexual orientation has never been collected. According to a USA Today article, ‘The WNBA estimates women make up 70–75% of its in-arena audience, and that the television audience is split 50-50 between women and men’ (Weir 2001).

 3 Empirical scholarship is lacking here, but there is a plethora of popular literature that describes this connection. Moreover, the MN Lynx marketing expert with whom I met acknowledged that lesbians make up an existing fan base and continue to be an obvious target for ticket sales.

 4 I do not mean to suggest that ‘Christian’ and ‘lesbian’ are necessarily situated in opposition to one another. In the context of the MN Lynx, however, the target Christian fan base is evangelical, right-wing and distinctly heteronormative. The respondents who were aware of the marketing efforts targeting Christian audiences spoke directly to the point that ‘Christian’ is not being used to include congregations who welcome lesbian parishioners.

 5 In Minneapolis/St. Paul, as in many other urban areas, spaces that are marked as lesbian have changed over time, and identifiability of the spaces has often depended on the position of the viewer. In this paper, I am posing a distinction between the landscape during the 1970s to 1990s, when spaces existed especially or only for lesbians, including the Lesbian Resource Center, Women's Coffee House, the Metro and a string of other now defunct bars and clubs, and the current landscape, where, as I discuss later in the article, no space exists especially or only for lesbians. I am in no way suggesting that the former spaces should be romanticized or understood as unproblematic (cf. Enke 2003). I am suggesting, however, that a lack of visible landscape markers invites an unexpected investment in ‘community’ discourse.

 6 Dolance (2005: 75) describes this phenomenon as a ‘centering’ of lesbian community. I differ with Dolance's interpretation, however. She argues that lesbian community is ‘actively built’ at WNBA games, whereas I am sceptical that any such ‘community building’ takes place.

 7 I recognize the limitations of identity categories and I contend with this more thoroughly in my dissertation. For this article, I am drawing on interview data from women who self-identify as non-heterosexual (lesbian, bi, queer, etc.), and responses to questions that assume experience in game spaces without heterosexual privilege. Therefore, even those who identified themselves as bisexual commented on their experiences at WNBA games as they related to being of a marginalized population.

 8 Scholars still debate the risk that political manoeuvring that is rooted in identity wed marginalized groups to their perceived victim status (Brown 1995). Taking on this argument, however, is beyond the scope of this paper.

 9 That ‘lesbian community’ is assumed to exist in spaces that are formulated by and through capital consumption also requires exploration, and I take on this question in my dissertation.

10 As I argue elsewhere (Muller forthcoming), sport spaces are produced by myriad participants, including athletes, fans, media, and are influenced by event location, politics of sport, etc. For the purposes of this paper, I will focus attention only on two of the groups who are significant to WNBA sport spaces.

11 For a visual text in popular American cinema that depicts this phenomenon, see the display of heterosexuality characterized in How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days (2003). One scene illustrates a New York Knicks NBA game in which the arena camera pans the audience to find a ‘kissing couple’; when the camera rests on a couple, the expected response is for the (always heterosexual) couple to kiss. This type of activity is typical in venues that display professional men's (and occasionally women's) sport.

12 This advertising strategy stands in contrast to the campaign for ‘Faith and Family Night’ in that the latter was overtly marketed as Christian, for Christian (and other) audiences. The promotional literature, for instance, included the contact information for the Timberwolves/Lynx Christian Programs Office.

13 While Collins (1999: 74) and Podmore (2001: 334) discuss the challenges associated with relying on visibility, I think this tactic is key to understanding how ‘lesbian community’ is imagined in WNBA spaces.

14 To be sure, some lesbian fans claim to not care about, or notice, anything but the basketball game that they go to watch.

15 See < www.outfrontmn.org>.