A (female) football fan.

Chances are that if you like football (association, or to some, soccer, but really, it is football) and your friends don’t, you end up being typecast into one of the following:

1. You either rein in all of your thoughts and keep them bottled up inside because no one is interested in your football jargon and you are a considerate fellow;

but if you are anything like me

2. You end up shoving unnecessary information onto others, babbling every detail of the match that your favourite club played last night because you just need to relive those memories of err just the night that went by and you are excited and don’t really care if your friends/family/random passers-by give you the death stare and/or the stink eye.

What is even more fascinating *coughs*annoying*coughs*, is that when you are a female football fan who (doesn’t quite play football herself) loves watching the sport, are well aware of the technicalities and are a genuine fan and yet are being judged for not being a “real fan”, so to speak.

Normally, I would care about these noble opinions as much as Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz cared about me when they decided to invent calculus, or about each other for that matter. However, today, I thought of consolidating a group of terms usually used to describe female fans of the beautiful sport and these terms are anything but beautiful. Let’s just clarify one thing: this isn’t an accusatory post. I am not generalizing men and male football fans; I am just pointing out what a few (significant number) of men throw towards us. It is they who generalize us and should not be misinterpreted the other way round.

~ Without further ado ~

FAN-GIRL
I would have had no problem being referred to as a fan-girl. I mean, why not?
Fan… Check!
Girl… Check!
Whatever is the problem ,right?

Except that there is a problem. This term is supposed to hold a very derisive connotation, more so amid the mighty fan boys. It is generally used to describe girls and women who harbor an unhealthy obsession for the footballers, hinting that the interest towards the sport is solely due to the good looking footballers. They blame us for blatantly objectifying the players. Hmm, this is rich coming from these very fans, who spare no occasion to objectify the WAGs of the respective footballers. Let’s not forget the female physiotherapists of the clubs either. There are your double standards.

OBSESSED FREAKS
Closely related to the idea of fan-girls, this is a more general term that encompasses fans of all genders but are still directed towards females in a negative sense. The thing is, there is a pronounced difference between passion and obsession. We love the sport and always tend to want to talk about it when we can but it’s not like we are talking about it all the time. Obsession is more transient, more superficial and when we are deemed to be obsessed over something that we are genuinely passionate about, it stings. In all honesty, so many of us female fans are way more proficient with the football knowledge than some of our male counterparts and yet get constantly subjected to unnecessary boorish behavior.

GLORY HUNTERS
A glory hunter is simply anyone who follows the clubs (primarily, but could extend to national teams and individual players too) when they are at their peak, winning titles and are the most successful team at the moment. If these teams happen to slightly slack and lose their lead, they also tend to lose the ‘loyalty’ of the glory hunters. Basically, these are the worst kind of fans who aren’t even fans. They usually associate with the sport to gain some popularity amongst peers or to be a part of a cool gang. Faux fans. Seriously though, how could you question the loyalty of a female fan, just because she is… well, let’s see, not a boy like you?

GOOD FAN for a girl…
Damn it, really?
Any phrase –no matter what – succeeded by “for a girl” is not a good thing. Never ever. Do they really expect girls to be flattered by such a well-known sexist rhetoric? Uhh no, thank you. I cannot even begin to point out how many things are fundamentally wrong with this assertion. It is demeaning and masquerading it with a compliment *snorts* is not going to grant you any favours. So maybe just disappear.

a NO-FAN
All of the aforementioned terms are equally absurd. However, there exists this sect of boys who just cannot come to terms with the fact that females too can be interested in the sport. Call it puerile if you wish to, as their obstinacy is so laughable. So essentially, no matter how well-versed a fan one is, one gets conveniently ignored as soon as their gender comes into play. Views and inputs get overtly disregarded, and well, we don’t even exist! Blithe little fools.

So here is a handful of the choicest of terms directed towards us. It makes no difference because it isn’t like we like football to prove a point. It isn’t like we like any testosterone-charged sport to prove any point. We just like the sport because it is beautiful and we connect with it. It would be splendid if even the men stopped trying to prove a point.  😀