Fair to Swear?: Gendered Formulations of Fairness in Football in Turkey

This article focuses on swearing in football chants in Turkey to demonstrate that fans construct a specifically masculine notion of fairness that diverges from the universalizing ideal of fair play. I argue that the Turkish Football Federation’s (TFF) clubs’ and mainstream media’s antiswearing campa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Middle East women's studies 2017-03, Vol.13 (1), p.25-46
Main Author: Nuhrat, Yağmur
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Ascription
Broadcasting
Campaigns
Clubs
Ethics
Females
Football
Gender
Gender and Sexuality
Gender relations
Guardians
Hegemony
Masculinity
Media
Middle East Studies
Postcolonial and Colonial Studies
Soccer
Sports fans
Swearing
Women
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Summary:This article focuses on swearing in football chants in Turkey to demonstrate that fans construct a specifically masculine notion of fairness that diverges from the universalizing ideal of fair play. I argue that the Turkish Football Federation’s (TFF) clubs’ and mainstream media’s antiswearing campaigns and policies, ostensibly to uphold fair play, miss how fans gender fairness by referring to the masculine ideal of the crazy/hot-blooded young man ( ). In keeping with theorization on “ordinary ethics” in anthropology, this analysis illuminates how fairness and gender are conegotiated in football in Turkey. In addition, this article critiques the mission the TFF ascribes to women fans, delineating them as naturally polite guardians of an imposed sense of fair play. I show that women fans have a complex relation with “hegemonic masculinity” whereby they simultaneously take part in the specific masculine construction of fairness and oppose normative gender expectations, specifically in relation to language.
ISSN:1552-5864
1558-9579
DOI:10.1215/15525864-3728624