CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Salem, Sophie |
|---|---|
| Title | The Arena of Masculinity: Ritual, Performance, and Gender Dynamics in Austrian Football |
| Summary | This thesis explores how rituals within Austrian football culture serve as pillar of the construction, performance, and subversion of hegemonic masculinity. Drawing on ethnographic research—including interviews with players at Landstraßen Athletik Club, observations of SK Rapid Wien's fan culture, and digital analysis of social media—the study critically examines how masculinity is ritualized through, gesture, repetition, collective emotion and sound. Grounded in the theoretical frameworks of Connell's hegemonic masculinity, Butler's gender performativity, Durkheim's collective effervescence, and sound studies, the research reveals how football spaces construct, perform and legitimize dominant gender norms while occasionally allowing for moments of disruption. Through the lenses of sacrality, nationalism, and sonic performance, the thesis illustrates how masculinity in Austrian football is repeatedly staged and policed across physical and digital environments. It also looks at the often-invisible roles and exclusions of women in maintaining these masculine heteronormative structures. Ultimately, this work offers a multi-sensory, context-specific analysis of football as a powerful arena for reproducing gendered hierarchies and questioning their perceived innateness. |
| Supervisor | Országhová, Kris/Tina; Renkin, Hadley |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/salem_sophie.pdf |
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