In this article, we argue that the “turn to affect” can provide a generative framework for working through key sticking points for women in sport. Through an analysis of the rule changes and subsequent social media comments in the lead-up to the inaugural Australian Football League Women’s (AFLW) competition, we demonstrate the power of emotions for intensifying and resisting discussion about women’s participation in male-dominated sport, as they accumulate through fan encounters on social media. Through a focus on the expression of emotions such as disappointment and contempt, we interrogate the collective workings of digital affects for constituting gendered knowledge production and subjectivity in sport contexts. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of feminist thinking for sport research and practice.
BergA. L.von ScheveC.UralN. Y.Walter-JochumR. (2019). Reading for affect—A methodological proposal for analyzing affective dynamics in discourse. In KahlA. (Ed.), Analyzing affective societies—Methods and methodologies (pp. 45–62). Routledge.
12.
BoothD. (2008). (Re)reading the surfers’ bible: The affects of tracks. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 22(1), 17–35.
13.
BucherT. (2017). The algorithmic imaginary: Exploring the ordinary affects of Facebook algorithms. Information, Communication & Society, 20(1), 30–44.
14.
ChaseL. (2006). (Un)disciplined bodies: A Foucauldian analysis of women’s rugby. Sociology of Sport Journal, 23(3), 229–247.
15.
ChopraJ.WeissT. G. (1992). Sovereignty is no longer sacrosanct: Codifying humanitarian intervention. Ethics & International Affairs, 6(1), 95–117.
16.
ClaringbouldI.KnoppersA. (2008). Doing and undoing gender in sport governance. Sex Roles, 58(1–2), 81–92.
17.
CookyC.MessnerM. A.MustoM. (2015). “It’s dude time!” A quarter century of excluding women’s sports in televised news and highlight shows. Communication & Sport, 3(3), 261–287.
18.
DeleuzeG.GuattariF. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. University of Minnesota Press.
19.
ElliottS.BevanN.LitchfieldC. (2020). Parents, girls’ and Australian football: A constructivist grounded theory for attracting and retaining participation. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 12, 392–413.
20.
FineC. (2017). Testosterone rex: Myths of sex, science, and society. W.W. Norton.
21.
FullagarS. (2017). Post-qualitative inquiry and the new materialist turn: Implications for sport, health and physical culture research. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 9(2), 247–257.
22.
GillF. (2007). “Violent” femininity: Women rugby players and gender negotiation. Women’s Studies International Forum, 30(5), 416–426.
23.
GonickM. (2006). Between “girl power” and “reviving Ophelia”: Constituting the neoliberal girl subject. NWSA Journal, 18(2), 1–23.
24.
HawzenM. G.McLeodC. M.HoldenJ. T.NewmanJ. I. (2018). Cruel optimism in sport management: Fans, affective labour, and the political economy of internships in the sport industry. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 42(3), 184–204.
25.
HeineckenD. (2015). “So tight in the thighs, so loose in the waist”: Embodying the female athlete online. Feminist Media Studies, 15(6), 1035–1052.
26.
HillisK.PaasonenS.PetitM. (Eds.). (2015). Networked affect. MIT Press.
27.
HoeberL. (2007). Exploring the gaps between meanings and practices of gender equity in a sport organization. Gender, Work & Organization, 14(3), 259–280.
28.
HutchinsB.RoweD. (2013). Digital media sport: Technology, power and culture in the network society. Routledge.
29.
Lenkic’B.HessR. (2016). Play on! The hidden history of women’s Australian rules football. Echo Publishing.
MarkhamA.BuchananE. (2017). Research ethics in context: Decision-making in digital research. In Van EsK.SchäferM. T. (Eds.), Datafied society: Studying culture through data (pp. 201–209). Amsterdam University Press.
32.
MendesK.RingroseJ.KellerJ. (2019). Digital feminist activism: Girls and women fight back against rape culture. Oxford University Press.
33.
MøllerK.RobardsB. (2019). Walking through, going along and scrolling back: Ephemeral mobilities in digital ethnography. Nordicom Review, 40(s1), 95–109.
34.
OliveR. (2015). Reframing surfing: Physical culture in online spaces. Media International Australia, 155(1), 99–107.
35.
OrrT. (2014). Concussions: The marketing nightmare that faces the NFL and youth sports. In Twenty-first annual conference on international business and contemporary issues in business (p. 74). https://apps.northern.edu/flippingbook/ceibe_2014/74/
36.
ParikkaJ. (2012). New materialism as media theory: Medianatures and dirty matter. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 9(1), 95–100.
37.
PavlidisA.FullagarS. (2013). Becoming roller derby grrrls: Exploring the gendered play of affect in mediated sport cultures. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 48(6), 673–688.
38.
PavlidisA.FullagarS. (2015). The pain and pleasure of roller derby: Thinking through affect and subjectification. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 18(5), 483–499.
39.
PavlidisA.FullagarS. (2016). Sport, gender and power: The rise of roller derby. Routledge.
40.
PigginJ.JacksonS. J.LewisM. (2009). Knowledge, power and politics: Contesting “evidence-based” national sport policy. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 44(1), 87–101.
41.
PinkS.ArdèvolE.LanzeniD. (2016). Digital materialities: Design and anthropology. Bloomsbury.
42.
PostillJ.PinkS. (2012). Social media ethnography: The digital researcher in a messy web. Media International Australia, 145(1), 123–134.
43.
PringleR.MarkulaP. (2005). No pain is sane after all: A Foucauldian analysis of masculinities and men’s rugby experiences of fear, pain, and pleasure. Sociology of Sport Journal, 22(4), 472–497.
44.
PronschinskeM.GrozaM. D.WalkerM. (2012). Attracting Facebook “fans”: The importance of authenticity and engagement as a social networking strategy for professional sport teams. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 21(4), 221–231.
45.
RedheadS. (2007). Those absent from the stadium are always right: Accelerated culture, sport media, and theory at the speed of light. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 31(3), 226–241.
46.
ReichertR.RichterichA. (2015). Introduction: Digital materialism. Digital Culture & Society, 1(1), 1–17.
47.
RingroseJ.RenoldE. (2014). “F** k Rape!” Exploring affective intensities in a feminist research assemblage. Qualitative Inquiry, 20(6), 772–780.
48.
RoyG. (2014). “Taking emotions seriously”: Feeling female and becoming-surfer through UK Surf Space. Emotion, Space and Society, 12, 41–48.
49.
SandersK. (2015). Mean girls, homosociality and football: An education on social and power dynamics between girls and women. Gender and Education, 27(7), 887–908.
50.
SedgwickE. K.FrankA. (1995). Shame in the cybernetic fold: Reading Silvan Tomkins. In SedgwickE. K.FrankA. (Eds.), Shame and its sisters: A Silvan Tomkins reader (pp. 1–28). Duke University Press.
51.
ShawS.FrisbyW. (2006). Can gender equity be more equitable? Promoting an alternative frame for sport management research, education, and practice. Journal of Sport Management, 20(4), 483–509.
52.
SherwoodM.LordanicM.BandaragodaT.SherryE.AlahakoonD. (2019). A new league, new coverage? Comparing tweets and media coverage from the first season of AFLW. Media International Australia, 172(1), 114–130.
53.
ShortA. K. (2000). Is the alien tort statute sacrosanct—Retaining forum non conveniens in human rights litigation. New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, 33, 1001–1100.
54.
SibsonR. (2010). “I was banging my head against a brick wall”: Exclusionary power and the gendering of sport organizations. Journal of Sport Management, 24(4), 379–399.
StephensE. (2015). Bad feelings: An affective genealogy of feminism. Australian Feminist Studies, 30(85), 273–282.
57.
StewartK. (2007). Ordinary affects. Duke University Press.
58.
TiidenbergK. (2018). Ethics in digital research. In FlickU. (Ed.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative data collection (pp. 466–479). SAGE.
59.
ToffolettiK. (2017). Women sport fans: Identification, participation, representation. Routledge.
60.
van AmsterdamN.ClaringbouldI.KnoppersA. (2017). Bodies matter: Professional bodies and embodiment in institutional sport contexts. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 41(4), 335–357.
61.
VannP. (2014). Changing the game: The role of social media in overcoming old media’s attention deficit toward women’s sport. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 58(3), 438–455.
WetherellM. (2013). Affect and discourse—What’s the problem? From affect to excess to affective/discursive practice. Subjectivity, 6(4), 349–368.
64.
WillsonM.TyeM.GormanS.Ely-HarperK.CreaghR.LeaverT.MagladryM.EfthimiouO. (2018). Framing the women’s AFL: Contested spaces and emerging narratives of hope and opportunity for women in sport. Sport in Society, 21(11), 1704–1720.
