Drinking like a guy? Women and sport related drinking

This paper introduces an under-researched area in analyses of contemporary sporting practices: women and sport-related drinking. While the role that alcohol plays in creating particular cultural identities in sport has been well documented, this has been done, almost exclusively, in relation to men. Drawing on empirical research with female supporters of Australian Rules football, this paper offers a preliminary analysis of the role of alcohol in constructing and maintaining personal and social identities for women in a particular sporting setting. In examining the behaviours, practices and attitudes of these women towards their own and others' alcohol consumption, the paper argues for a need to extend our conceptual, theoretical and empirical frameworks for thinking about sports-associated drinking. It posits a need to rethink dominant theoretical tropes such as ‘hegemonic masculinity’ which often orient studies of sport-related drinking and argues instead for alternative analytical frameworks that may advance critical scholarship on the under-researched relationship between women, sport and alcohol consumption.