Playing Our Way: Social Media Technologies, Transmedia Sports, and the Gendered Play of Fantasy Sports

• In Event: 512 - Section on Sex and Gender Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 08. Masculinities, Online Communities and Media

Abstract

Drawing on qualitative interview data of thirty fantasy football players, I argue that the typical profile of a fantasy sports player as an uber fan who consumes vast amounts of sports content while also experiencing an existential crisis brought about by fantasy team/favorite team misalignment is limiting in a masculinist way. Analysis of the experiences of five research participants, all of whom identify as women, indicate that there is an alternative, cohesive fantasy sports profile that is centered on being competitive while also being efficient with one’s time and resources. These five female fantasy sports players use social media technologies, transmedia content, and mechanisms for finding help, in ways that are similar to each other and different from the other twenty-five players’ use of the same technologies. I argue that that ways in which fantasy sports are played can be markedly different and likely in gender-specific ways.

Author

• Mary C. Ingram-Waters, Arizona State University