“You’re Underestimating Me and You Shouldn’t”

Abstract

Using qualitative data, this article investigates women's experiences in fantasy sports, a context that offers the potential for transformations in the gendered order of traditionally masculinized athletic environments by blurring the distinctions between real and virtual, combining active production and passive consumption, and allowing men and women to play side-by-side. We find, however, women often describe fantasy sports as a male/masculine space in which they are highly visible and have their ability to compete like men questioned, largely because of gendered assumptions regarding sports knowledge. Women's attitudes and behaviors frequently reproduce traditional gender dynamics, although women also engage in behaviors and assert definitions of themselves that are potentially transformative-implicitly and explicitly pushing the boundaries of what females are expected to be and accomplish in sport. often, however, they simultaneously reproduce and resist men's dominance and women's marginalization, exercising (1) "mediated agency" by using men to improve their fantasy sports experience and play or (2) "conflicted agency" by reinforcing or accepting gender stereotypes about women while using those stereotypes to their advantage or positioning themselves as atypical women to whom the stereotypes do not apply.

Beyond stereotypes: Women and their engagement in football fandom

“…Women's agency in sports fandom has been recently explored by Kissane and Winslow (2016) in the context of fantasy sports. Based on qualitative data, the researchers show that women who engage in fantasy sports combine strategies that question gender stereotypes with those that reproduce traditional gender dynamics.…”

Sport Culture and Adversity Explained: Exploring My Experience as a Woman Working in the Sport Industry

“…Female sports fans and women working in the sports industry are confronted with a system that suspects their knowledge, ability, and motivation to participate in sports are invalid or questionable (Esmonde, Cooky, & Andrews 2018). In contrast, men are automatically trusted in these areas and reap the benefits of power associated with it even if they are not an athlete or avid sports fan (Kissane & Winslow, 2016).…”

“…Sport is a space where women are constructed as outsiders by men, and several tactics are executed to push women into believing that they do not belong in sport by making them feel insignificant and inferior (Esmonde, Cooky, & Andrews, 2018). As Kissane & Winslow (2016) reported, men reinforce their dominance by belittling and bullying women on message forums that are necessary to participate. Male players make it clear that they do not see female players as a threat and that competing against them undoubtedly secures them a win (Kissane & Winslow, 2016).…”

“…As Kissane & Winslow (2016) reported, men reinforce their dominance by belittling and bullying women on message forums that are necessary to participate. Male players make it clear that they do not see female players as a threat and that competing against them undoubtedly secures them a win (Kissane & Winslow, 2016). Women in fantasy sports leagues are also marginalized in these spaces because to stop male harassment, they are forced to either join allfemale leagues, pull out of message forums -thus, putting them at a disadvantage for the game, or quit playing altogether (Kissane & Winslow, 2016).…”

“That’s Not the Only Reason I’m Watching the Game”: Women’s (Hetero)Sexual Desire and Sports Fandom

“…Despite their growing numbers, the marginalization of women within sports fan communities has been well documented by sports scholars. There are many delegitimizing stereotypes about women sports fans—such as the belief that women are not knowledgeable about sports (Crolley & Long, 2001; Farrell, Fink, & Fields, 2011; Kissane & Winslow, 2016; Markovits & Albertson, 2012), that their interest in sports is only due to the influence of a husband or a boyfriend or the desire to find a husband or a boyfriend (Esmonde, Cooky, & Andrews, 2015; Jones, 2008; Whiteside & Hardin, 2011), or that they only watch sports because they are in love with the male athletes (Gosling, 2007; Obel, 2012; Pope & Williams, 2011; Toffoletti & Mewett, 2012). These stereotypes speak to the broader exclusion of normative, heterosexual femininity within what are routinely hypermasculinized sports fan communities (Esmonde, Cooky, & Andrews, 2015; Curtin, 2015; Hoeber & Kerwin, 2013; Obel, 2012; Pope, 2013; Toffoletti & Mewett, 2012; Wedgwood, 2008).…”