The Doxas that Cause the Marginalization of Women in Football Fandom

Like football, football fandom is a gendered field dominated by men. To understand the experience and of fans and their place in this place helps us reveal different fandom identities aside from accepted male dominant fandom identities, thus it helps to understand the field as a whole. In this aspect the aim of this study is analyzing place of the women in fandom by researcing doxas causing their marginalization. As a result of our qualitative research that include interviews held to 8 women fans of sport clubs two themes emerged. First one is Fandom as a Masculine Field, second one is Doxas of Field: To Be Like ‘Men’ for Accepted. In first theme we discuss how fandom creates a social field and which elements creates the masculanity of this field, in second theme we review what kind of things are expected from women to be accepted in this field. As a result of the study it reveals that women deal with hardship to get acceptance as a real fans, their knowledge is constantly questioned, and they get approval if they string along with men and accept sexism.