Jamie Hampton
jhampto6@uwyo.edu
Another year of football has come and passed and after eavesdropping on some conversations here and there, I can’t help but think about the fact that there is an underlying struggle when it comes to being a female sports fan.
I grew up in a household of huge football fans and I have two older brothers. Up until I was about 14 my whole family tried really hard to get me to pick a football team so that I could participate, but for some reason I felt like I needed to stick to a certain stereotype. For some reason it seemed to me that liking sports would take away some of my girly-ness and boys wouldn’t like that. Thinking back on it, this makes no sense whatsoever.
When I was 14 I finally made the decision to be a Baltimore Ravens fan and started watching football with my family every Monday, Thursday and Sunday. When asked why I chose the Baltimore Ravens I would list reasons that were somewhat embarrassing, including: my favorite band likes the Ravens, my favorite color is purple, the mascot is named Poe after Edgar Allan Poe and Joe Flacco is Italian. I had many people scoff at me when I explained this to them, because to them it didn’t seem like a legitimate reason to like a football team. This was frustrating, since on one side everyone didn’t understand why I didn’t have a football team and then on the other side no one wanted to respect why I would make the decision. I get that my reasons were very simple and had nothing to do with the actual team itself, but I chose the team based on things I love, and isn’t that enough of a reason? To be quite frank, I don’t think it even matters why you pick a team. I never hear people questioning my brothers why they chose their teams.
This was just the beginning of my noticing that there seemed to be a double standard. As the years went on the scoffs subsided, but I noticed other comments being made. Things like, “You probably only watch football because of the uniforms.” Are you kidding me? Of course I watch football because of how good the men look on the field. But that’s not the only reason! I know many men who watch sports like volleyball or UFC fights and comment on the women. For goodness sakes, there is a lingerie football league!
Just because I am a woman that may or may not have used binoculars to check out certain players at the Broncos and Ravens game, doesn’t mean I couldn’t tell you that Justin Tucker is one of the best kickers in the league with a career completion percentage of 87.8.
But, wait. There’s more! Anytime I try to be a part of conversations or share stats on players there seems to be at least a couple people a season who think I am just trying to make it sound like I know what I’m talking about to get guys to like me. To this I say, absolutely not. I like sports because I like sports. If someone finds me more attractive because of it, that’s on them. When a guy starts talking about celebrities with his buddies I doubt it ever occurs to them that he’s trying to impress girls and get them to like him.
Basically, what I’m saying is, can’t we all just like what we want to like without there having to be some sort of struggle? I don’t have to prove myself as a true sports fan. If I like sports, then I like them for my own reasons and you’re entitled to your own feelings on the subject.
