For the Love of Football

Abstract

The sexual attraction of some women specifically to sportsmen is such a taken-for-granted and commonplace phenomenon in Western society it receives little academic attention. This article first examines the handful of studies that have considered the relationship between heterosexual desire and Australian Rules footballers. Second, it reviews the few sociological studies of the groupies and wives of elite sportsmen. The article concludes that the social construction of sexual desire is an important but neglected element of the reproduction of the gender order. It is suggested that the concept cathexis may provide a useful conceptual framework for illuminating the ways in which women's heterosexual desires affect the maintenance, reproduction, and/or subversion of the existing gender order.