Male Football Hooligans Are Doing Gender through Physical Violence

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2013 im Fachbereich Anglistik - Kultur und Landeskunde, Note: 1,3, Universität Potsdam (Anglistik und Amerikanistik), Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Football is in central Europe one of the most popular sports if not the most popular. The numerous clubs of amateur football prove the popularity of the sport. There are stadia filled all around Europe with football fans. But the sport events are since its early days followed by violent phenomenons around the game. Fights in the stadium during the game before or afterwards became a problem. The groups were called hooligans and they coined the perception of football's fandom. The display of violence in hooliganism varies immensely from researcher to researcher. The proof for hooliganism as a violent phenomenon is given in the most researchers' results. Nevertheless the explanations of violence differ. Locating hooligans in society and analyzing the groups properties should help to find an explanation for their acting. The perspective on this phenomenon differs immensely depending on the spectator. Especially, the stereotype of the hooligan is coined by the media and only slightly by the results of academic approaches. The stereotype of the football hooligan is that of the ignorant working-class 'yob' who attends football matches as an opportunity to get into a fight, and not from any 'genuine' interest in the game itself. His violence, like the destructive behavior of the vandal [...], is perpetually described as mindless, senseless,illogic and irrational.(Clarke 7) The picture which is drawn in academic literature is different. This paper will compare gathered facts about hooliganism to explain the violent acting of hooligans. King argues that 'the issue of violence at English football grounds has become of less pressing concern to the state and the media with the development of all-seater stadia. However, since fighting still occurs with regularity, the study of hooliganism is not without contemporary relevance.' (576). The approach I had chosen, is gender related and will seek for co-relations between doing gender and the violent behavior of hooligan. During the work a relation between change of the labour market and the influence on the gender identities of men became visible. The hooligan who is according to his stereotype a rowdy without any reason is restored by arguments which try to explain his behavior. The violence of these football fans shall not be justified by the explanations.