Pleasure and the Sanctuary Paradox: Experiences of Girls and Women Playing Soccer

Arguably, girls’ and women’s soccer in England is currently experiencing amelioration in terms of participation numbers, media coverage and general public interest. Although, lurking behind these favorable statistics and the pretence of new developmental strategies sits soccer’s cultural millstone, weighing down social progression and limiting the credibility afforded to the game. This paper seeks to unearth how girls and women negotiate their experiences of playing against this backdrop of inferiority by giving them a ‘voice’. The study is explored through a lens of ‘performative pleasure’ as a theoretical standpoint for understanding the basis of activity which involved qualitative methods enagaging with 57 female players aged between 8 and 31 years. The examination uncovered that despite barriers to participation and the management of social stereotyping, girls and women found pleasure through playing. Soccer provided the players with a ‘safe space’ to experience leisure, but ironically this refuge was often needed in response to soccerbased teasing and ‘banter’: conceptualized as the Sanctuary Paradox. The current findings have implications for the management and execution of cultural change within sporting environments.