Abstract
The book Bigotry, Football and Scotland is a collection of essays that forms a key part of the public discussion linking bigotry, football and intra-Christian sectarianism in Scottish society. With almost 15 years since the previous collection (Devine, 2000) it is a must read for those with an interest in current debates on ethno-Christian complexities in Scotland. At first sight, this book may not be the most obvious choice of literature for feminist readers of social and political science, given the association of sectarianism with the narrow world of Scottish football and its connections to hegemonic constructions of Scottish masculinity in mainstream discourses (Stewart-Lindores, 2014). However, these widespread and largely uncritiqued assumptions are precisely the reasons why this book attracts my interest and why I would also argue that it calls for a more critical feminist, intersectional analysis of its wide-ranging contents.
Historically, sectarianism in Scotland was characterized by the tensions between white Irish, Scottish and British identities and the political, religious and economic struggles originating in the Protestant Reformation, the colonization of Ireland and the various waves of Irish migration to Scotland throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The attitudes and actions associated with these historically unequal power relationships continue to permeate the structure, culture and practices of everyday life in modern-day Scotland. These are predominantly framed within the politics of Scottish football’s ‘Old Firm’ rivalry between Rangers (Protestant) and Celtic (Catholic) and, to a lesser extent, Heart of Midlothian (Protestant) and Hibernian (Catholic).
This book is situated within the dominant naming, framing and locating of sectarianism, in a landscape of renewed legislative and policy-driven interest in tackling ‘Scotland’s Shame’. It sets out to re-problematize the geographical, historical and social contexts of sectarianism, to debate its recent governance and address the ‘neglected perspectives’ of ‘class, gender and football supporters’ (p. 161).
The opening section of the book aptly illustrates the way in which the dominant framing of sectarianism has been constructed almost exclusively as an issue of problematic masculinities bound up with public, typically male manifestations of working-class, ‘uncivilized’ behaviours in connection with football.
Rosie opens the collection with an overview of the ‘disputatious’ 2010–2011 Scottish Premier League, offering a thought-provoking analysis of online football fora and the role of supporters in perpetuating bigotry in these contexts (p. 19). His discussions of Hate Crime statistics and forms of sectarianism in football and public life are firmly situated within dominant discourses which foreground typically masculine and working-class constructions of bigotry. While Davies’s piece on the history of gangs, territorialism and football-related violence in Glasgow is equally informative, it is less insightful for those with a concern for modern-day sectarian tensions as they might also affect different women’s lives. Again, also focusing on hegemonic masculinities, Flint and Powell draw upon Norbert Elias’s theories of civilization to discuss the relationships between class, culture and capitalism as they conflict with official political discourses keen to portray a more harmonious image of Scotland.
These dominant narratives give the book a sense of creating a sectarian subject through discourses which emphasize the connections between working-class men’s lives and football-related bigotry, which are less attentive to women’s different experiences as they are also characterized by class and ethno-religious identity (Stewart-Lindores, 2014). Although Kelly also conforms to this hegemonic framing, providing a geographical comparison of bigotry between the Edinburgh football clubs in the East and the Glasgow Old Firm in the West, his ethno-religious focus incorporates a historical framework which enables him to reflect more critically on the minority positioning of those with ‘Irish-Catholic linkages’ in Scotland (p. 47).
Similarly, Bradley’s contribution, also taking an ethno-religious focus, will appeal to academics with a concern for the minority status of the Irish in Britain. Unfairly criticized in another review as solely for a popular audience unfamiliar with long-standing debates (McDowell, 2014: 1194), his piece would merit closer academic consideration, particularly given his attention to the neglected private and familial spheres which widen the scope of the naming, framing and locating of sectarianism to include the under-researched ‘intimate spaces of child-rearing’, intergenerational relationships and the ‘counter-cultural’ role of the family in ‘handing down’ knowledge – all of which have particular relevance in women’s studies (pp. 72–75). Bradley’s brief consideration of relationships and the everyday private and familial spaces of social life are more explicitly explored by the sole contributors who provide the long-overdue addition of women to an otherwise male-dominated discussion.
Goodall and Malloch draw on findings from their pilot study on women and sectarianism to shed light on the new controversial legislation on Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications and its impact on women’s different experiences of sectarianism within communities. They provide insights into the position of women as victims of ‘sectarianism’ who use ‘avoidance strategies’ for fear that their personal safety in public spaces will be breached. However, they also present participants’ perspectives on the nature of patriarchal violence against women in the home to argue that this is an issue in itself, irrespective of its recent policy connections to football and sectarianism (pp. 172–174). Giving an insight ‘behind the scenes’, they also discuss the role of women on Old Firm match days, describing the tactics used to tempt their men-folk away from violence with the promise of good food and a warm atmosphere at home (p. 174). However, focusing on an essentialized ‘woman’ their emphasis on passive roles, victimization and expectations to placate ‘working-class men behaving badly’ probably results from their attempt to fit different women’s experiences into the football framing of the book (p. 175). Sensitive to this imposition they stress the need to ‘re-contextualize’ future debates in ways which recognize the various challenges that impact women’s lives, stating that otherwise, This tells us little about how women see sectarianism, how they are affected by it and how they are actively involved in it. (p. 168, my emphasis)
Also remarking on the importance of naming and framing, Crawford’s essay on the politics of anti-sectarianism is thought provoking and lends another critical perspective to the debate. He argues that the ‘offended elites’ who legislate against sectarianism have claimed the ‘monopoly over the definition’ (p. 180). Ultimately, the book as a whole is characterized by these conflicts over naming, framing and locating sectarianism. Crawford draws on Bourdieu’s theories of language and symbolic power to conceptualize these conflicts as ‘class-based ideological struggles’ (pp. 180–193). However, his argument could equally apply to the symbolic, patriarchal power that has defined sectarianism in ways which, as Goodall and Malloch testify, still continue to marginalize women’s different experiences.
Reid’s use of critical narrative analysis also draws attention to the hidden power dynamics of majority discourses by making parallels with racism. This chapter further illustrates the importance of the political task of raising minority voices that, Reid claims, still endure intolerance towards their Irish ethnicity and religion in Scotland. She presents several ‘systems of othering’ and their ideological underpinnings, ranging from those who deny or ignore the problem, to those who narrowly frame the issue, placing the wider social context beyond consideration by relegating such behaviour to an ‘aberrant minority’, either blaming these individuals or accusing those who speak out of perpetuating the intolerance themselves (p. 152).
Reid’s analysis has relevance in the wider context of the argument against the dominant framing of sectarianism, which also appears to minimize and contain bigotry through the narrative construction of the male, working-class football supporter who represents the alleged archetypal sectarian subject. As Reid states, These techniques … operate subtly, covertly and insidiously in conjunction with a whole system of ideas, values, myths and practices to deflect and neutralise allegations of (bigotry or sectarianism) and sustain the social power of a particular community. (p. 152)
Although several writers allude to the centrality of this social power and privilege, there is a tendency towards single-issue identity claims based on class or ethnicity or gender, in isolation. These ignore the crucial intersectional differences across the axes of these characteristics as they shape and are shaped by experiences of sectarianism. Nevertheless, the different ways in which the authors have chosen to name, frame and locate this social phenomenon aptly captures the dynamics of current debates. As a result, not only does the book meet its key aim of providing a ‘diversity of contemporary approaches and perspectives’ (p. 10) but the neglected perspectives of women, in particular, have also been included in a debate which has, until recently, been ‘conducted within a largely male and masculine context’ (p. 163). It opens up new avenues for future intersectional feminist analyses of sectarian bigotry in modern-day Scotland.