Livet er for kort til kvindefodbold - om kvindefodbold, homfobi og (re)præsentationer af homofobi i den dansk avispresse

Resumé

Et bidrag til en mangelfuld litteratur om kvinder og fodbold, fordomme og maskulinitet.

Life is too short for women’s football – on women’s football, homophobia and (re)presentations of homophobia in the Danish press

International success has not been the hallmark of Danish women’s soccer since the early 1970s, when the national team won the unofficial World Cup in Mexico and caught the interest of Danish news media and the Danish public in general. Since then only scarce media attention has been paid to Danish women’s soccer. With a specific aim of exploring the current interest of Danish media in women’s soccer – its character and images – this article examines the (re)presentations of women’s soccer in selected Danish newspapers in the period from 1995 through 2001. The theoretical point of departure is taken in the concept of homophobia, and includes a discussion of how homophobian attitudes may shape women’s engagement in sports. Against this backdrop, five homophobian themes emerge from the analysis of Danish newspaper (re)presentations on women’s soccer, each of them pointing to a sport in which women are now being accepted but yet not respected.