ABSTRACT
Much has been written about football in the UK-its history, its emergence as a global entity, even as a capitalist mega-industry. While men have been central to these stories, a gendered analysis of the beautiful game has remained limited to academic journal articles and conference presentations. This book has addressed this omission, highlighting both the centrality of masculinity to football, but also drawing out the importance of football to masculinity. By interviewing the next generation of professional footballers in the UK, it also captures social change in masculinity and how elite footballing cultures may become more inclusive with time. By providing a social history of football, situating the role of gender within it, and identifying the importance of heterosexuality within that context, this book has tracked intersections of football and masculinity and the potential for social change. Research undertaken on men’s teamsports during the 1980s and 1990s typically found high levels of homophobia, predominantly manifested through the deployment of homophobic language and violence toward gay athletes (e.g. Bryant, 2001; Griffin, 1998; Wolf-Wendel et al., 2001). Boys and men were stratified according to their ability to embody and conform to a culturally esteemed form of masculinity; one characterized by elevated forms of aggressive homophobia and misogyny (Connell, 1995; Curry, 1991; Harry, 1995). However, this book contributes to a growing body of research that shows times have changed: professional athletes-both in football and in other teamsports-no longer face such homophobic oppression (Anderson et al., 2016). At the time of writing, there are only two known currently active and openly gay professional footballers: Anton Hysén and Robbie Rogers. These players were positively received and supported by fellow players and fans when they came out (Cleland, 2015b), demonstrating a cultural shift toward one of inclusivity (Weeks, 2007). Indeed, since the turn of the twenty-first century, there has been a large body of theoretical, conceptual and empirical gender scholars who have highlighted the changing context toward masculinity and sexuality in
different subcultures within the contemporary environment of football, and indeed sport more generally. This research has challenged traditional notions of hierarchically structured masculinities, moving into one of horizontal alignment (Anderson, 2009; McCormack, 2012a). Indeed, millennials have exhibited more inclusive forms of masculinities-espousing gay-friendly attitudes and enjoying increased forms of physical and emotional tactility without being considered gay by their peers (Anderson, 2014; Anderson & McCormack, 2015). This book provides an optimistic addition to this literature-finding that the attitudes of the next generation of British professional footballers follow these broader trends of inclusivity and softening masculinities.
