Another ‘barra’ Is Possible: Women, Feminism and ‘barras’ in Mexico

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to recover the experiences of women who participate in football supporter groups (barras in Latin America) as spaces for political action. Usually, barras are conceived as groups of young male fans that reproduce the model of hegemonic masculinity. For that reason, the first part of the chapter revisits the approaches of sociology of sport and feminist theory to describe the male culture of barras and the ways in which women are embedded in this culture as fans. Next, it provides context for the emergence of female football supporter groups in Latin America. The fourth section presents the methodology that allowed exploration the experiences of women in Barra Feminista in Mexico, the case study for this chapter. Finally, it discusses the ways in which these women deconstruct the meanings and practices of football as a male space and how they propose to intersect feminist principles into the enjoyment of football.