Letters to the Editor
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I dunno about football merchandise, but....
I am a female baseball fan, and I have mixed feelings about the new trend of having merchandise aimed at women. On the plus side, I can finally get official-type jerseys that will actually fit me. On the minus side, the marketers apparently think that women are more interested in making a fashion statement than in declaring our team allegiance. I don't need a generic _pink_ baseball cap or T-shirt with a barely visible small white team logo added as an afterthought. Sports gear should be "blue for Cubs fans, red for Cardinals fans", not "blue for boys, pink for girls"!
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Try Women's Sports
As long as you're looking to be a sports fan.
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sports fans
I grew up in a family that was 1/2 from Pittsburgh, 1/2 from Cleveland. The rivalry between my two families was legendary-- driven mostly by the die-hard Steelers/Browns female fans. So I don't get the idea that only men like sports, but I think that class is probably a pretty big part of this. In working class families in working class neighborhoods it is far more common for women to know sports, especially football, because it is a communal activity wrapped up in regional pride.
This Sunday my wife and I are hosting a Super Bowl party, complete with terrible towels and enough screaming at the tv to make the dogs hide under the dining room table. Yes, we are lesbians, but the mix of people we are hosting-- straight and gay men, straight and lesbian women-- does represent that perception and reality aren't always playing on the same team.
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I love football
My sisters and I grew up watching football with my dad. An early rite of passage was being taken to a Dolphins game. (My sister and I cheer every year when the perfect season records holds up again.) My older sister is a sports freak who got satellite radio so she could hear NASCAR. She also listens to sports talk radio.
Football is exciting, there's lots of action, and the guys look good in the uniforms. What more do we need?
As for the gear, I own numerous long and short-sleeve T-shirts, magnets, a cool visor, a knit cap, pajamas, a T.O. poster, and more. Fly Eagles fly!
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This article is missing a key thing...
Sure women are fans ... of male sports. Where are the women's football leagues, women's MLB etc.? I know there's a WNBA, but for the most part women's sports are viewed as either a joke or they are admired from a distance.
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Big Improvement
This women/football story is a welcome relief from more phoney statistics about battered women and the Super Bowl.
One of my happiest moments as a football fan was getting my sister, after years of prodding, interested in football. I have season tickets to the Washington Redskins and getting my sister to buy a ticket of her own and come to all the games with me has been loads of fun. It's also been great fun teaching her the nuances of the game, as she's never embarrassed to ask what something means or why something happened. She's become schooled enough to instruct others, including her fiancee, about football. I never thought anything could match the fun I have going to football games with my old man, but going to football games with my baby sister has done the trick.
Now, for my wife...
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we heart football (european a.k.a. soccer)
Hooray for female fandom!! I am a huge fan of European soccer (Arsenal in London, Juventus of Turin) and am always greeted with shock by men, who can't believe a "lady" is passionate about such a (male) sport. I even go to the stadium in Rome when my team is playing there and I'm in the minority, but a growing one in the still macho world of Italian soccer. Good to know there are others out there...