Sex, Friendship and Women’s Football (2025 ed.)
Inside a Women’s Australian Rules Team

By (author) Kellie Sanders

ISBN13: 9783031648069

Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan

Publisher: Springer International Publishing AG

Format: Hardback

Published: 26/11/2025

Availability: Not yet available

Description
This book is contextualised by, makes connections to, and seeks to build on theory intersecting various fields: codes of women’s football globally; female sport participation globally; gender and sexuality studies; queer theory; and visual methods. Through showcasing women’s experiences of playing football, highlighting the ways in which players make sense of their gendered embodiment and performances, and exploring how gender is understood and regulated within the unique social context of a female football team, this book demonstrates why such discussions are crucial for advancing gender equality and theorization of genders in contemporary Western cultures. In giving voice to the lived experiences and perspectives of women who have and continue to play Australian Rules football, this book highlights the ongoing tensions, conflicts, contradictions, and absences of negotiating their passion for playing the game, the impact of gender on their playing experiences, and the significance of the social and cultural space of their  football club to their lives. It provides a nuanced account of the power and significance of women’s social bonds in this space, explores how notions of female friendship and desire are caught up in heteronormative discourses, and engages in discussions of the ways in which genders, sexualities, desires, embodiments, and sociality are contested and negotiated among women  in homosocial spaces. This book will be of interest to researchers, academics and students working and studying in the fields of gender and sexuality studies, queer theory, visual methodologies, sociology of sport, sports studies, female friendship, physical education, as well as those who play and work within codes  of women’s football.
1. Introduction: The rise of female football in Australia.- 2. Background and origins: Women on the football field.- 3. Queer Theory: Beyond the binaries.- 4. Homosociality: Discourses of (homosocial) connection.- 5. Footballing bodies and intragender relations: Policing and regulating gender and desire.- 6. Sportscapes and affect: Belonging, connection, and acceptance.- 7. Conclusion: Lessons from a women’s Australian Rules football team?.
  • Gender studies, gender groups
  • Sociology: sport & leisure
  • Professional & Vocational
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List Price: £109.99