Female Sports Fandom in the North East:A Historical Study of Female Fandom & the Critical Intersections Between Sports Spectatorship and Participation

几个世纪以来，体育运动在英国人的生活中扮演着重要的角色，数百万人作为球迷参与了体育运动。然而，令人惊讶的是，从历史上看，人们对女性作为体育迷的经历知之甚少，所以在这种记忆和经历完全被时间遗忘之前，迫切需要研究来解决这个问题。几乎没有一项研究考察了玩体育和看体育之间的交集，因此有必要研究女性早期的体育经历，以及这些经历如何影响她们未来的体育参与，并调查女性球迷一生对体育的参与。很少有研究研究男子足球和橄榄球联盟球迷的跨运动认知，以考虑体育偏好和跨运动认知与历史社会阶层差异的联系程度。这项拟议的研究将对解决这些领域做出重大贡献，对知识做出非常原创和重要的贡献。这项研究将建立在波普(2010)最初研究的基础上，通过对英格兰东北部男子和女子运动的女性球迷进行比较研究。我们利用了泰恩县和沃尔县的四家体育俱乐部：男子足球俱乐部(纽卡斯尔联队)、男子橄榄球俱乐部(纽卡斯尔猎鹰队)、女子足球俱乐部(桑德兰亚足联女子足球俱乐部)和女子投篮俱乐部(诺森布里亚队)。可以说，与英格兰其他地区相比，东北地区在历史上一直更多地由男性主导，因此提供了一个迷人的景观，可以探索女性作为体育迷的经历，以及女性如何在几代人的时间里进入传统上由男性主导的体育领域。这项研究旨在考察20世纪下半叶英国女性作为体育迷的经历。它还将侧重于体育参与和球迷之间的关键交集，并将审查妇女早期的体育经历如何影响她们未来参与体育运动。这项研究将集中于支持者的跨运动认知以及历史社会阶层差异在体育偏好中的作用。本研究旨在解决以下问题：1.1945-2000年间，女性男女体育爱好者的经历是什么？在女性球迷的一生中，体育迷在她们的生活中扮演了什么角色？2.女性球迷参加体育比赛和观看体育比赛之间的关系有多大？体育教育和其他早期运动经历在塑造女性未来参与体育运动的过程中起到了什么作用？3.女性球迷如何看待当地的其他运动？从历史上看，体育迷对社区遗产和地方认同的重要性有多大？我们将通过对我们选定的四家体育俱乐部的女性球迷进行大约25次生活史访谈来实现这些目标，这意味着总共约有100名受访者。受访者还将被问及是否有参与体育活动的视觉图像，并将在获得许可的情况下拍摄副本。这项研究借鉴了女性主义的框架来研究体育史，并将对历史和体育领域做出重大贡献。由于这项研究采用了跨学科的方法，性别研究、体育、社会学、流行文化和区域研究的研究人员也会对此感兴趣。我们将出版这项研究的研究专著，以及一些期刊论文。将在英国组织学术会议，并与我们在加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚大学的项目合作伙伴一起传播研究结果。这项研究将有益于：国家足球博物馆和妇女运动健身基金会等慈善机构；普通公众；体育管理机构；选定的体育俱乐部和国家政府部门。我们计划了一系列活动，以确保实现这一更广泛的影响。

Sport has played an important part in the lives of British people for centuries and millions of people have been involved in sport as fans. Yet surprising little is known about women's experiences as sports fans historically, so there is an urgent need for research to address this before such memories and experiences are entirely lost to time. Barely any studies have examined the intersections between playing and watching sport and so there is a need for research to examine women's early sporting experiences and how these shape their future involvement in sport and to examine female fans involvement in sport across their lifetimes. Little work has examined the cross sport perceptions of fans of men's football and rugby union in order to consider the extent to which sporting preferences and cross sport perceptions are linked to historical social class differences. This proposed research will make a major contribution towards addressing these areas, making a highly original and important contribution to knowledge.The research will build on Pope's (2010) original study through a comparative study of female fans of men's and women's sports in the North East of England. We draw on four sports' clubs from the county of Tyne and Wear: men's football (Newcastle United FC); men's rugby (Newcastle Falcons); women's football (Sunderland AFC Ladies) and women's netball (Team Northumbria). Arguably, the North East has historically been more male-dominated than other areas of England, thus providing a fascinating landscape to explore women's experiences as sports fans and how women have gained access to the traditionally male domain of sport across the generations. The research aims to examine women's experiences as sports fans in Britain during the second half of the twentieth century. It will also focus upon the critical intersections between sports participation and fandom and will examine how women's early sporting experiences influence their future involvement in sport. The study will focus upon the cross sport perceptions of supporters and the role of historical social class differences in sporting preferences. The research aims to address the following questions:1. What have been the experiences of female fans of men's and women's sports from 1945-2000? What role has sports fandom played in the lives of female fans across their lifetimes?2. To what extent is there a relationship between playing and watching sport for female fans? What is the role of physical education and other early sporting experiences in shaping females' future involvement in sport?3. How do female fans view other sports in the local region? To what extent has sports fandom historically been important for community heritage and local identities?We will achieve these aims by conducting approximately 25 life-history interviews with female fans from our four selected sports clubs, which will mean around 100 respondents in total. Respondents will also be asked if they have any visual images of their involvement in sport and copies will be taken where permission is granted. The research draws on a feminist framework to study sports history and will make a major contribution to the fields of history and sport. As the research draws on an interdisciplinary approach it will also be of interest to researchers working in gender studies, physical education, sociology, popular culture and regional studies. We will publish a research monograph from the research, along with a number of journal papers. Academic conferences will be organised in the UK and with our project partner at the University of British Columbia in Canada to disseminate findings. The research will be beneficial for: charities such as the National Football Museum and Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation; the general public; governing bodies of sport; the selected sports clubs and national government departments. We have planned a series of events to ensure that this wider impact is achieved.