Abstract
The number of women in football has considerably grown in Spain, which in addition to increasing its media and social visibility is also attracting academic interest. In this regard, the objective of this article is to understand and interpret the experiences of 15 elite female football players regarding their gender and sexual orientation. The semi-structured interviews followed a pattern already used in other related research and dealt with topics such as the stereotypes that accompany women who play football, family reluctance, coexistence in locker rooms, lesbians coming out of the closet, or the need for more and better reference models. The data point to a clear homosociability within the teams and the benefits of supporting one and other when coming out of the closet, offering a counterpoint to family attitudes mostly characterized by rejection or stigmas that mark women as ‘tomboys.’ The conclusions highlight, on the one hand, the discrimination that the female players experience for being women who practice a traditionally masculine sport, and how homonegativity contributes to the control of women and the gendered nature of sport, and on the other hand, the open and inclusive climate that lesbian players have found in the football environment.
Introduction
Women's football in Spain has grown in terms of the number of participants (Arroyo, 2022). This growth is associated with an increase in the amount of academic publication output on female football players (Adán et al., 2020), although very few studies adopt a qualitative approach capable of understanding the multiple dimensions of the phenomenon. In this regard, this article tries to answer the questions ‘What are the sporting experiences of female football players in Spain regarding gender and sexuality?’ ‘Are football teams safe spaces for diversity?’ ‘What is the relationship of the players according to their sexual orientation?’ With these questions, we aim to make these experiences visible, break the silence to which these athletes have been relegated, and expose the handicaps that stem from heteronormativity.
In order to achieve this, the study starts from an explicitly feminist position, as suggested by Cooky (2016: 77). This is relevant, in the words of this author, ‘for recognizing the importance of women's lived experience and subjugated knowledge.’
Sexual and gender minorities
Sexual and gender minorities represent those individuals who identify with a gender or identity other than cisgender or with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual (Smalley et al., 2018). For Krane (2019), throughout history, these groups have been relegated to the sidelines of sports culture and their experiences have had little representation in scientific literature. However, in the last decade, research on the impact, for example, of homonegativity on athletes and coaches has increased (Kokkonen, 2014; Krane, 2019; Linghede and Larsson, 2017), and a variety of topics such as attitudes toward gender and sexual diversity in sport have been explored.
In this line, Kavoura and Kokkonen (2020) distinguish some interconnected themes in the scientific literature that collect and analyze the sports experiences of gender and sexual minorities: identity, discrimination, coming out of the closet, or social change strategies. According to these categories we are able to classify some of the studies that aim to give visibility to the experiences of the lesbian group in the sports field, which is the object of this study.
Identity
Davis-Delano (2014), Mennesson and Clement (2003), Riemer (1997), Sanders (2015), and Shire et al. (2000) explore women's teams as contexts of empowerment for non-heterosexual women. In these studies, lesbian identity was understood as an artifice that could be represented in women's sports, to such an extent that the teams were associated with acceptance, protection, and celebration of lesbian relationships (Sanders, 2015). However, other studies show how negative stereotypes associated with lesbian identity are a concern in women's sports (Caudwell, 1999; Fynes and Fisher, 2016; Kauer and Krane, 2006; Krane, 1997). In this regard, Krane (1997) documented how some lesbian athletes tried to pass off as being heterosexual, and how heterosexual athletes tried to differentiate themselves from their lesbian teammates. On the other hand, Walker and Melton (2015) studied the intersection between race, gender and sexual orientation in the intercollegiate sports context and observed how women with multiple marginalized identities were seen as a threat.
Discrimination
Regarding the discrimination suffered by non-heterosexual athletes, Krane (1997) analyzed the experiences of lesbian college athletes and concluded that the lesbian label in sports was associated with stereotypes that were used to marginalize female players. In traditionally female sports (volleyball or netball), lesbians and bisexual women reported suffering discrimination for not conforming to norms of feminine appearance (Brackenridge et al., 2008; Krane, 2019). Similarly, Hamdi et al. (2016, 2017), Vertommen et al. (2016), and Symons et al. (2017), pointed out how the experiences of lesbian athletes, compared to their heterosexual companions, contained more negative emotions regarding discrimination in the sports field. On the other hand, the systematic review carried out by Rovira-Font and Vilanova-Soler (2022) confirms that discrimination, harassment, and stigmatization imply a high prevalence of mental health problems such as stress, anxiety, sadness, distress, low self-esteem, or depression among people who belong to a sexual and gender minority group.
Coming out of the closet
If we look at the studies conducted on the coming out experiences of non-heterosexual athletes, we see how the type of sport and the presence of other non-heterosexual athletes are shown to be crucial elements for these experiences to be more positive (Fink et al., 2012). After analyzing the experiences of 14 non-heterosexual athletes, Ravel and Rail (2007, 2008) questioned not only the linear nature of this process but also the idea that sexuality is fixed and stable from birth.
Social change strategies
Finally, some studies have pointed out the importance of the strategies used by lesbian athletes to give visibility and generate change in the heterosexist culture of sport. One solution has been to develop leagues using an alternative model to the binary sexual model, as Travers and Deri (2011) point out in their study of a lesbian softball league. Kauer and Krane (2006) highlighted that the fact that some lesbian athletes come out of the closet could facilitate social change in some contexts.
Women in football
If we focus on studies of the experiences of women in football, we can see how they have mainly dealt with the issue of identity and how the existing stereotype of women's football regarding lesbianism is a problem for them (Harris, 2005).
As Pronger (1990: xi) reveals, heteronormativity in sports implies different frames for lesbian or bisexual women and gay or bisexual men: ‘women athletes are often expected to be lesbians; men athletes are seldom expected to be gay.’ As a result, according to the heterosexual canons, women are suspected of being lesbian simply by participating in sports, regardless of their sexual orientation (Caudwell, 1999; Kauer and Krane, 2006; Krane, 1997; Lenskyj, 1990, 2003, 2012). Furthermore, this is especially present in sports which are considered masculine, like football in Europe (Anderson et al., 2016; Caudwell, 1999, 2003, 2007; Cox and Thompson, 2001; Eng, 2006; Griffin, 1992, 1998; Lenskyj, 2012; Mennesson and Clement, 2003; Scraton et al., 1999; Skogvang and Fasting, 2013).
As the literature shows, negative stereotypes associated with the lesbian identity is a concern for both lesbian and straight women. Griffin (1998) describes how the lesbian label in western society is used as an insult and maintains its intimidating power. In her early work in the UK, Caudwell (1999) found that the ‘tomboy’ lesbian ethic was of concern to female football players. Similarly, Cox and Thompson (2000, 2001) documented how some female football players not only took care of their image to conform to dominant constructions of femininity, but also to differentiate themselves from short-haired lesbian imagery. Women's behavior is controlled through heteronormativity, as the lesbian label contributes to the gendered nature of the sport (Lenskyj, 2012; Sartore and Cunningham, 2009).
Consequently, some heterosexual players have avoided associating and engaging with their lesbian peers and the lesbian stereotype, and may also expose homonegativity as a way to avoid suspicion regarding their sexuality (Anderson and Bullingham, 2015; Caudwell, 1999, 2003; Clarke, 1996, 1998; Cox and Thompson, 2001; Krane, 1997; Scraton et al., 1999; Squires and Sparkes, 1996). As the review of the literature of Soler-Prat et al. (2022) states, for non-heterosexual women in sports there is an intersection of discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation. In most studies about lesbians in organized sports, the results show that they do not disclose their sexual orientation to avoid prejudice (Caudwell, 1999; Eng, 2006, 2008; Hekma, 1998; Sartore and Cunningham, 2009; Krane, 1997; Kavoura and Kokkonen, 2020).
Meanwhile, Anderson et al. (2016: 56) suggest that ‘the lack of openly lesbian athletes in England is because the assumed prevalence of lesbians in team sports adds an extra burden to them (…) this extra burden comes in the form of guilt by association.’ In addition, Eng (2006) in Norway highlights the fact that the coming out of some female elite football players pressures other lesbians in football not to come out to avoid to “pollute” (2006: 22) the sport.
However, at the same time, Caudwell (2002) found how, in certain contexts, the visibility of lesbianism in football makes it a space that resists heteronormativity. Women's football appears as a space of lesbian visibility which allows the privileged position of heterosexuality to be questioned. To do this, the author introduces the concept of ‘dykescape’ (2002: 35), which highlights the way in which lesbian women take over a heterosexual space in search of recognition denied in other areas. For Caudwell (2002), women's football emerges as a space of heterosexual fragility. This fact is confirmed by the discomfort and marginalization felt by some heterosexual players.
In a similar way, Mennesson and Clément (2003) consider that the homosociability in female football teams facilitates homosexual practices. However, the authors also state that homosociability by itself does not explain these practices, given that in male teams this sociability is related to a rejection of homosexuality. In fact, in other situations, homophobic behavior is used by young team athletes (men and women) to distance themselves from homosexuality and identify with the dominant gender norms, by facilitating emotional bonds between them or simply insulting others (Magrath, 2017). In this way, Mennesson and Clément (2003) conclude that homosociability is part of a combination of factors that influence the sexuality of female players, among which we find their personal experiences or the fact that football is related to masculinity.
However, despite the fact that the female participants of these studies consider the context of women's football as a space of resistance to heteronormativity and homophobia in which lesbian sexuality is recognized as a new norm, it is also true that some of its participants reproduce discourses that maintain unequal relationships between certain identities (Drury, 2011; Ravel and Rail, 2007, 2008). Along these lines, Caudwell (2007) studied the experiences of different profiles of lesbians in a homosexual football team in the United Kingdom: feminine (femme), tomboys (butch), and transsexuals. The author observed that, although these teams question the heteronormativity of football spaces, feminine lesbian players maintained certain privileges, while the tomboyish players were more marginalized.
Sexual and gender minorities in Spanish sport
Unfortunately, in Spain there are not many works that analyze the experiences of LGBTQI athletes (Gil-Quintana et al., 2022) or specifically address the relationships of women in football and the issue of lesbianism (Soler-Prat et al., 2022).
In the first group of studies, we can highlight the publication by Piedra et al. (2017) on the levels of tolerance that athletes have towards sexual and gender diversity and the publication of Vilanova et al. (2022) on the experiences of gay men studying a university degree in Physical Activity and Sport Science. Also recently, Vilanova et al. (2020) dealt with the first Spanish male elite team sports athlete to come out of the closet publicly. Finally, it is worth highlighting the various studies that researchers from the University of Valencia have carried out on trans people and their sports experiences (Devís-Devís et al., 2017, 2022; López-Cañada et al., 2021).
In the second group there are fewer publications. From a historical perspective, Ribalta and Pujadas (2020) describe the role of football in the construction of social networks among lesbian women in the final stages of the Franco regime, between 1970 and 1979. Their work confirms how, in a time of lack of visibility of female homosexuality, and in a context of hostility towards homosexuality in the public institutions of the Dictatorship, football provided a valuable space to experience their sexual orientation.
On the other hand, and based on current testimonies from 15 interviews with female players of the Spanish football team, Boronat (2021) narrates various examples of machismo and homophobia attributed to the former Spanish women's football coach, Ignacio Quereda, who held this position until 2015 and for 27 years. Said coach not only used his power as a national coach to flaunt his machismo, but also to generate an environment which aimed to eradicate homosexual behavior within his team, threatening any player who publicly displayed their lesbianism. Boronat (2021) concludes that the dominant macho culture in the institutional managers within professional women's football, in which women hold few managerial positions, supports this type of behavior.
In conclusion, although in the last decade some studies reveal a more favorable attitudinal change toward homosexual groups in Western sports, others show the existence of persistent homophobic prejudices, under the cover of a “pseudo-inclusive” climate (Piedra et al., 2017), which makes participation in organized sports difficult (Doull et al., 2018). In this sense, providing better support and increasing the visibility of the experiences of gender and sexual minority athletes would facilitate an inclusive sport environment and promote a more open sports culture regardless of sexual or gender identities.
As shown, the state of the art in Spain is insufficient, and requires new research.
Method
In this study, we use the postulates of poststructuralism feminism, which are a crucial part of essentialist positions based on a single idea of what it means to be a woman and to be feminine. According to a more fluid and less watertight understanding of the categories that dictate us, we think that ‘poststructuralist theory and methodology is extremely important for producing refined and contextualized knowledge of the subject of sexuality and sport’ (Elling and Janssens, 2009: 72). This theoretical position has direct implications on methodological issues. Both poststructuralism and qualitative research coincide in the conception of knowledge and social reality being something constructed. In fact, this assumption lies at the heart of the relativistic or internal ontology of the qualitative paradigm (Sparkes and Smith, 2014).
As Elling and Janssens (2009) acknowledge, qualitative research is predominant in studies of this nature. Understanding knowledge as something constructed and dependent on the subjective interpretations that each person makes has direct epistemological implications (Atkinson, 2012) such as, in our case, the use of in-depth interviews. Only through semi-structured interviews is it possible to capture the interpretations, feelings, and perspectives that the interviewees make of the reality in which they live (Sparkes and Smith, 2014). It is, therefore, about conversations in which knowledge is built together.
Other feminist research has used interviews with women before us, such as Scraton et al. (1999) or Caudwell (1999, 2007). In the words of Jayne Caudwell (2003: 374) ‘Feminists keen to explore in detail women's particular experiences have championed the interview as a method of inquiry.’ Our interview guide was based on the content from Caudwell (1999, 2002, 2003, 2007). In addition, we followed the procedure determined by Anderson (2011). We began with general questions about the participants’ initial stages in football to then move on to specific topics such as ‘coming out,’ stereotypes and stigmatization, social relationships, or other aspects of their life experiences.
Fifteen women were interviewed who, during 2020, played in elite teams, both football and futsal, spread throughout the Spanish geography, but always in urban environments, especially large cities. Table 1 provides background details of the participants. Of the 15, five of them were heterosexual (identified with H in the results), while the other 10 identified as open homosexual (lesbian or bisexual) (identified with LB). Their age was between 20 and 35 years. The interviews lasted an average of 35 min, were carried out in pleasant places, and were recorded. The selection of the participants obeyed convenience and accessibility criteria, contacting the athletes, mainly using a snowball technique.
Participants.
Data analysis responded to the qualitative tradition. Thus, at first, the transcripts were repeatedly read by the first author of the article to become familiar with the data. With the first three interviews, a preliminary list of codes was prepared to identify the units of analysis. This initial list was corrected by the first two authors, eliminating some codes, combining others, or adding new ones, as the rest of the transcripts were analyzed. Once a matrix was designed for data organization, they were decontextualized and placed in the corresponding subcategories.
In this sense, the data has been subjected to constant review until the final themes were identified: The weight of heteronormativity; The sense of community; Football as a safe space. The data collected did not show any difference in terms of football and futsal, therefore, no difference will be made between the two activities in the following section and the term football will be used to refer to both.
A ‘member reflection’ took place throughout the analytical process (Smith and McGannon, 2018). In our case, the reflection was internal, not with the interviewees, and served to increase the rigor of our interpretations, especially by recognizing our diversities as a research group when analyzing the data. Thus, the combined presence of men and women, some being football practitioners and having different sexual orientations, has allowed us to enrich our reflections as a group, as described by Martínez-Merino et al. (2022).
Other decisions of an ethical nature increase the credibility of the study. In this sense, the informed consent of the athletes was obtained, in which they were informed of the objectives of the study, their confidentiality and anonymity were assured, and they were asked if they allowed the recording of the conversations.
Results
The weight of heteronormativity in women's football: they didn't want me to play football because they didn't want me to be a lesbian
The data underpins the well-known relationship between football and masculinity, which makes this sport a highly stereotyped activity associated with the masculine, and by opposition, far from the feminine. Thus, the presence of women playing football subverts this correlation: ‘everyone says that it is for boys and since it is for men and boys, then a girl will not be seen in a good light’ (2H). With this in mind, it is not surprising that families suffer from thinking that their daughters might choose football and try, at all costs, to keep them away from this sport. This is how one of the interviewees recounted her mother's efforts in this regard: ‘Well, I’ll sign you up for Sevillanas (I don't want to dance), I’ll sign you up for tennis (no), I’ll sign you up for taekwondo’ (1LB).
This intense social pressure prior to playing football is marked by deep stereotypes. The heteronormativity is clearly identified by the testimonies: I would like it if girls playing football would not be associated with them being lesbians. It's what I think needs to change because they will never say that boys who play football are sissies. They will say the opposite, that: “Ala is a machote” Why? (5H)
One of the heterosexual players highlights this issue as follows: ‘They didn't want me to play football because they didn't want me to be a lesbian’ (3H). Despite this, there are those who keep trying and manage, not without effort, to start playing this sport. Once they enroll in football practice however, the pressure does not stop: ‘They assume that you like girls just for playing football’ (1LB). The argument that associates football with lesbianism goes further and tries to stigmatize this activity as if it were a ‘homosexual factory’, as stated by one of the interviewed players: ‘You are going to be a lesbian when you grow up’ (2H).
Women football players have the feeling that they have to make an extra effort to assert themselves, with tenacity, over these social imponderables, whether heterosexual or not. The feeling is of always having to swim against the current: In a heteropatriarchal society, and that's how it is, besides being hetero and patriarchal, I mean, both things… because we’re girls we have a lot of work to break with the hetero and, furthermore, break with the issue that we are women and that we can do things… the same things as men (1H).
The pressure exerted on them is constant and comes from afar. Our protagonists recount subtle pressures when choosing what to play in the school playground, to form a group of friends during childhood, or about their haircuts: In the end, being a woman in a male sport has always been a bit of a barrier in terms of the social environment and … since I was little when I used to play in the park, I have always had to put up with comments from mothers, from children… (5LB).
In some families, football becomes the main cause for girls’ sexual ‘deviations’. Then, the pressures move away from subtlety and take on a rough and tumble form, such as a mother's comment: ‘My mother once told me ‘you’ve made it so that your little sister is not going to be able to play football because she's going to follow you, you’re going to lead her astray’ (6LB).
In a certain way, women who play football have transgressed the dominant gender order, and participate in an activity long considered a man's preserve (Hekma, 1998; Theberge, 1985). This affront has clear consequences. Football sign-ups become complicated and simple associations with homosexuality become combined with added stereotypes of being tomboys. All of this prevents football and femininity from coming together as a whole: ‘I physically never looked like a tomboy but, as soon as you said that you played football, they already told you: “Ah, you’re a tomboy”’ (3H). In this way, the system of stereotypes tries, in the first instance, to distance women from sports considered to be men's and, if this is not achieved, to stigmatize them and condemn them to ‘be something’ that they ‘neither are’ nor, in many cases ‘want to be.’
At the end, in this crusade, the lesbian football players recounted hard moments in which, among other things, they felt they had disappointed the expectations placed on them: It was hard for me to say it and it was also hard for me to identify it in myself. It was like maybe I did know, but at no time did I feel strong enough to face it because in my house we didn't live freely at that time. They wouldn't say anything either, but what was typical was having some gay person appear on TV and like, my father would make a comment, and in the end I created these expectations from my father, and they didn't allow me to develop (5LB).
This process of acceptation and coming out, the Via Crucis, in some cases has led them even to blame themselves.
The sense of community between teammates
Faced with a heteronormative and sexist society, football teams are valued as safe and highly comfortable spaces for the interviewed players: ‘I started playing with girls when I was 13 years old and… there I managed to relax’ (1H). This relaxation referred to in the quote is crucial to building a sense of camaraderie between women players, as a heterosexual player comments: ‘When we finish training, we always go to the bar to have a beer and there… everyone opens up, everyone explains their problems, and everyone tries to help everyone’ (1H).
These feelings can also be extrapolated to sexual orientation. Thus, lesbian women who play football say they feel equally comfortable in their teams: Being on a team in which more girls are homosexual and such, well, you feel more like a community. So feeling part of a community and really feeling it, because you’re experiencing it together with your teammates, well it helps a lot more to, like, feel more protected, “normal” (7LB).
In a certain way, the football team becomes an oasis in which to compensate for the social pressures pointed out in the previous section. If we continue to use the religious metaphor, it is like paradise after the Via Crucis. Thus, the group is a refuge in which players relax, speak freely, and feel the respect that they are not receiving outside of the team, as one of them expresses when she compares the locker room with her family: It was much more difficult in one place compared to the other. Here I was wrapped up, there I was alone. With my family, yes, but alone. And there weren't many people before me, so it was much more complicated (9LB).
In this fostering process, the feeling of community among female football players makes social relationships notably closer and mutual trust increases. The oldest, and those who have already walked their own path, serve as a guide to the youngest: In the end, the teams end up being like families and, whether you like it or not, you spend many hours there and have emotional support in an environment where you spend a lot of time, and in which you have your role models… like when you are little, you look at the older ones and you say ‘wow, this one has been playing for many years’… yes, it helps a lot (1H)
The mentorship of the oldest over the youngest plays a fundamental role: … a player who was also… was in her thirties or older and was married to a woman, so this also helps… If they are married, they come to games together, they live together, they are married, and that's fine. This opens up the eyes of the youngest (3H).
In these quotes, it is relevant to see that the heterosexual women players acknowledge and value the example of lesbian women for the youngest and lesbian relationships are welcome. Furthermore, none of the five heterosexual players interviewed reported any problem with being ‘surrounded’ by lesbians.
Football as a safe space for lesbian or bisexual women
This comfort that women players find in the teams, in general, and lesbians, in particular, translates into the fact that many players, initially heterosexual, have changed their sexual orientation over time after joining a team: I don't know if I would be with a girl today if I hadn't played football (6LB).
All my life I had been with boys, until I signed up for football. I met her there and there she was (1LB).
The quotes evidence the fact that coexistence in safe environments facilitates the promotion of counter-hegemonic attitudes and behaviors which, in many cases, are socially constrained. Thus, it seems that when the climate is friendly and safe for lesbian women, more women can challenge the heteronormativity: I think we all have a sense of curiosity inside, but society tells us what we can and cannot do… So, the moment you enter a locker room, and you start hearing some conversations, you go ‘wow, wow’, well maybe… I also want to kiss a girl (3LB).
This climate can allow the presence of open homosexual relationships in women football teams to become common, at least in the opinion of the interviewees: There is a very high percentage of homosexuals in locker rooms, and that is the way it is (2LB).
In a team, they are either half and half, or homosexuality outweighs heterosexuality (3LB).
With regard to revealing their sexual orientation, the data expose how in many cases the announcement is made in the group of teammates before it is announced at home, with the family. Again, we see how the team becomes a safe space in which the players feel free to think and act as they please. In addition, the example of other veterans protects the process of coming out of the closet. Furthermore, in recent years there have been various cases of lesbian football players who have made their sexual orientation public: …a piece of news about Mapi León, from Barça, came out a long time ago, in which she openly disclosed her sexual orientation in Marca (5LB).
Regarding these testimonies, the media impact surrounding female players and, above all, elite players, coming out of the closet publicly is a fundamental step to normalize the presence of homosexuals and to break the heteronormativity in women's football.
Discussion
According to the results, the heteronormativity and the lesbian stigma are clearly present in women's football in Spain, as in other countries (Anderson et al., 2016; Caudwell, 1999, 2003, 2007; Cox and Thompson, 2001; Eng, 2006; Griffin 1992, 1998; Lenskyj, 2012; Mennesson and Clement, 2003; Scraton et al., 1999; Skogvang and Fasting, 2013), and comes especially from the parents. However, faced with the pressure from families to stay away from football, teams are the counterpoint to the family reluctance towards a male sport and to a homosexual orientation.
Thus, lesbian players are comfortable in football teams in Spain, where they can come out of the closet and show a homosexual orientation while playing sports. According to the Griffin's (1998) taxonomy, which contemplates three types of climate (hostile, conditionally tolerant, and open and inclusive) the data shows an inclusive climate for homosexual women in the context of the teams. The locker rooms become an ‘oasis’ for the players, who do not find the same understanding outside (Kauer and Krane, 2006; Krane, 1997; Petty and Trussell, 2018; Ribalta and Pujadas, 2020; Soler-Prat et al., 2022).
The locker rooms of some sports, and of women's football in particular, offer security and respect that makes them attractive to non-heterosexual women who, as we see, endure varying levels of discrimination abroad (Caudwell, 1999; Fynes and Fisher, 2016; Ribalta and Pujadas, 2020; Soler-Prat et al., 2022). However, not only does the centripetal effect of these teams standout, but it is also worth highlighting the agency of the players themselves who, with their effort and tenacity, overcome all obstacles, their particular Via Crucis.
It is powerfully striking how the data point to a significantly counter-hegemonic constitution of women's football teams, in which not only lesbian relationships are completely free, but manifest homosociability phenomena (Davis-Delano, 2014; Mennesson and Clement, 2003; Riemer, 1997; Sanders, 2015; Shire et al., 2000). Homosociability in women's football teams facilitates homosexual practices and allows players to engage in this type of sexual practice if they wish (Sanders, 2015). This fact can contribute to subverting not only the deep-rooted androcentric stereotype of sport as a heterosexual context, but also to become a driving force of LGBTQI+ rights (Mennesson and Clément, 2003).
This fact could have raised the suspicion of heterosexual players as the review of the literature shows in other contexts (Soler-Prat et al., 2022), although no testimonies were collected in this regard. In contrast with previous studies in other contexts (Anderson and Bullingham, 2015, Caudwell, 1999, 2003; Clarke, 1996, 1998; Cox and Thompson, 2001; Krane, 1997; Scraton et al., 1999; Squires and Sparkes, 1996), the heterosexual women football players in this study do not expose homonegativity as a way to avoid suspicion regarding their sexuality.
That said, for the general public and public opinion, these facts may reinforce some of the stereotypes collected in the literature, such as that female sports harbor and promote homosexuality. As Hekma (1998) indicates, this visibility and “overrepresentation” can produce a backlash as it can confirm the fear of parents about the possibility that their daughters will be turned into lesbians. These stereotypes, as Harris (2005) has pointed out, can pose a problem to the image of women's football. On the one hand, this could be balanced if male sports gave visibility, with the naturalness that female sports already do, to cases of homosexual players (Eng, 2006), which would show that it is not a ‘problem’ of the women. On the other hand, perhaps prejudices could be tackled by spreading the harmony that exists in these female locker rooms, regardless of the sexual orientation of their participants. Making these experiences public could facilitate social change (Kauer and Krane, 2006; Kauer, 2009).
In this way, it is verified that the experiences of lesbians are not a mirror of their gay counterparts, and it is necessary to acknowledge that LGBTQI+ people in sports are not “one” homogeneous group, in the same way that “women” and “lesbians” in sports are diverse (Soler-Prat et al., 2022).
Conclusions
This article aims to give visibility to the experiences of lesbian and non-lesbian women who play football and futsal, and to show firsthand the difficulties they have had to face due to heteronormativity, as well as the possibilities of finding inclusive spaces. On the one hand, it reveals the discrimination that players experience for being women who practice a traditionally male sport, and how homonegativity contributes to the control of women and the gendered nature of sport. And on the other, it describes the open and inclusive climate that lesbian players have found in the football environment. Nevertheless, in the future it will be interesting to study the experience of lesbian women who are “not as open” to understand their experiences, and to analyse how the new professional league in women's football and the growing relevance in the media influence female football players regarding gender and sexuality.
With this study, we not only intend to break the scientific invisibility of women football players in Spain, favoring a personal catharsis, but also to facilitate a transformation towards a sports culture of openness and respect for all. This cultural change will not be completed while the stereotypes surrounding women's football are preserved. Deconstructing the sexual and gender norms that have formed the pillars of sport throughout the past is essential if equality in sport is to be achieved.
In addition, the role of education in this change is also necessary (Kavoura and Kokkonen, 2020). All people involved in sports should receive an education on how to avoid reinforcing heteronormativity and how to create adequate environments for those individuals who question it. They play a fundamental role in the practice of inclusive policies, so they should have the resources and knowledge to prevent, recognize and deal with prejudice and discrimination.
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Sílvia Puig and Julia Álvarez for their contributions in improving this research.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación) Spain, under Grant Agreement PID2019-108630RAI00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. Also, the first author obtained a mobility scholarship from University of Valencia (INV22.01.16) which allowed him to undertake a one-month research visit at Leeds Beckett University and finish the paper.
Correction (February 2023):
This article has been updated to include Acknowledgment Section. The Funding statement is also revised.