Trash Talkers and Divers: Soccer's Gendered Structure.

Throughout the world, many countries have seen an increase in female soccer participation (cf. Hong and Mangan 2004). In 2003 in the US, there were 9.1 million girls registered, accounting for 45 percent of all soccer players in this country (SICA). In most countries, women's participation in the male domain of sport has been "contested ideological terrain" (Messner 1988:198) and met with resistance. Given these circumstances, the growth of women's soccer would seem to indicate movement towards greater gender equality. The goals of our paper are twofold. Firstly, using historical and demographic data, we suggest that soccer has been constructed as a "less masculine" sport in the US (compared to other mainstays such as football, basketball, or baseball). Secondly, using data gathered from participant observation and in-depth interviews, we argue that that gendered styles of play (in particular, the way women and men show aggression, "dive," and "talk trash") reflect and reproduce male privilege. In so doing, our analysis extends upon Messner's (2000) argument that "doing gender" (West and Zimmerman 1987) on the playing field is an intertwined product of "interaction, structural context, and culture" (2000: 767). To be more specific, we show how the social context of youth soccer (a sport constructed as "sissy" in the US), uniquely enables and constrains gender performance. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]