Abstract

GUTIERREZ-CHICO, Fernando  and  GONZALEZ-FUENTE, Íñigo. Underrepresentation, Exceptionalization, Peripheralization. Relational Androcentrism in the Narrative Construction of Football Clubs: The Case of Athletic Bilbao. Antipod. Rev. Antropol. Arqueol. [online]. 2023, n.52, pp.87-112.  Epub July 26, 2023. ISSN 1900-5407.  https://doi.org/10.7440/antipoda52.2023.04.

Within the sociocultural framework of sport, this research focuses on the androcentric hierarchy of mediated narratives in football. We explore the approach of these narratives from a gender and club level perspective. Specifically, we investigate the presence and role of female footballers in the discursive construction of professional clubs. To do so, we selected Athletic Bilbao as a case study, a pioneering club in the development of women’s football in Spain. The methodology employed is based on content analysis of the covers of four Spanish newspapers (As, Mundo Deportivo, El Correo, and Deia) over three complete seasons (2018/19, 2019/20, and 2020/21). A total of 357 covers published between August 2018 and June 2021 were collected. These covers correspond to the days when both the women’s and men’s teams of Athletic Bilbao played their respective league, cup, and super cup matches, as well as the immediately following day, known as the post-match day. The results are presented as an interdependent relational system in terms of information selection and omission at three levels: sequential, normative, and positional. Significantly, this system highlights the need to examine the content dedicated to both women and men. In the particular case of Athletic Bilbao, the recorded information clearly demonstrates a sexist relationality based on the underrepresentation, exceptionalization, and marginalization of women’s sports practices. These interpretations invite reflection on sports, particularly football, as a discursive field that reinforces the construction of narratives in which men are the social norm, the inevitable protagonists, while women are presented as social deviants, disposable antagonists.

Keywords : Androcentrism; Athletic Bilbao; hierarchy; identity narrative; women’s football.

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