Sexuality politics on the football field

Abstract

This thesis explores the potentials of the football field as a site of resistance through the mobilities and alliances of gender non-conforming footballing bodies. The queer identified teams, which have emerged in the last years in several cities around Turkey, are analyzed with respect to the voluntarily and/or compulsorily decentralization and proliferation of the sites of resistance within the current sociopolitical conditions of the country. The ways in which dissident groups relate to the football field, which is mostly considered as a male-dominant and heterosexualized space where social norms are reproduced, are classified into three groups: resistance through / against / for football. After the contextualization of my research both in the academic field and in the domain of football, with a particular focus on the journey of women and LGBTI+ individuals, the category of resistance for football is thoroughly examined as a unique way for gender non-conforming footballing bodies to inhabit the field. Getting inspired by the recent tendency of queers toward football field as a site of politics and collective well-being, the link between sexual orientations and spatial aptitudes of the body is investigated. Bodily movements and spatial configurations co-constitutively and constantly shape the field, its borders, rules, values, and thus participants. Attempting at denaturalizing and historicizing of seemingly effortless appearance of the football field, I argue that the queer-identified teams disrupt the straight lines and thus can extend the footballing bodies to new spatial orientations where queer happenings can blossom.