Sean Payton and the Masculinization of Football

In case you’ve been on the moon recently and missed it, football is a gendered space.  While girls and boys, women and men continue to play sports on different teams, at different times, on different courts and fields, and often with subtly different equipment or rules, it’s also true that by and large, they’re playing many of the same sports.  There are only a few sports that have remained the province of men.  Olympic ski jumping is probably my favorite example.  In a classically awful way, it turns out that a woman (Lindsey Van) holds the world record in ski jumping but cannot compete in the Olympic event because it is sex segregated and there is no women’s event.  Football is one such space as well.  Women don’t play.  They don’t play as girls and they can’t play professionally as women.

[SIDE NOTE: It is true that there is a Lingerie Football League that started in 2009 (and yes… it’s exactly as awful as it sounds).  Women play full contact indoor football in the same arenas where men’s professional sports are played.  The game is unsafe and there are a great deal of injuries as a result.  The women wear less padding, but are extreme athletes and go “all out” in front of screaming audiences of men.]

The most recent issue in the NFL is the suspension of the New Orleans Saints’ coach, Sean Payton for what’s being considered unsportsmanlike conduct off the field.