By Raeshelle Pascual
Being a sports fan is a fun way of bringing together community to indulge in cheering on your favourite teams and playfully wishing for the downfall of your rivals.
So why is a man wearing the exact same jersey as mine asking me to name five players on the team and doubting my ability to like the sport?
Being a female sports fan in general is a tough community to be in. Being a woman and a fan of ice hockey is another story. From the constant derogatory name-calling and trivia questioning of the sport online and at games, why do women feel like they need to prove themselves as fans of the sport?
The Rise of Female Fans in Hockey
According to Sportsnet.ca in 2022, 37 per cent of hockey fans are female and this has increased by 26 per cent since 2016. From there, the stats have just grown. Especially with the growth of hockey within social media, the demographic of young female hockey fans is expanding more than ever.
As someone who grew up in Canada with many of my friends playing and watching hockey, it was almost natural that I became attracted to the game too. So why does it feel like the community of female fans in hockey is still so small?
The Marginalization of ‘Puck Bunnies’
The sports community as a whole is undoubtedly a group built from patriarchy and male domination. With the top sports leagues in the industry based around male athletes, it’s no surprise that the audience is predominantly male.
There is, of course, the community of female sports fans who enjoy hockey games like anyone else would. Maybe they love the rush, the fast pace of the game, or the feeling of when your team strikes the puck in the back of the net. As anyone else would, right? However, the treatment of male hockey fans versus female hockey fans is uncanny.
Although almost every woman who goes to hockey games is there for the same reasons as everyone else, they are the ones who have to prove their loyalty.
Otherwise, if they don’t, they are simply labelled as ‘puck bunnies’ and not ‘real fans of the sport.’
If you are unfamiliar with the term, ‘puck-bunny,’ it is a term coined in 2004 in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary made by men to suggest that women only watch hockey because they’re attracted to the players – a lazy and derogatory stereotype. Because that’s all women do, right? We gush over the male attention and nothing else.
But when we try to defend ourselves, we are faced with the same trivia questions:
“Who’s your favourite player and don’t say [most popular player on the team].”
“Did your dad/boyfriend make you a fan?”
And of course, the infamous, “Oh you’re a fan? Name 5 players on the team.”
Not only are these questions redundant but they’re sexist, and honestly, very annoying.
If my favourite player on the team is the best and most popular player on the team, why is that considered ‘unknowledgeable?’
Even if my dad or boyfriend got me into the sport, why does it matter?
And sure, I’ll name 5 players on the team, easily.
As a woman, I can be a fan of the sport simply because I like hockey. Being automatically labelled into a misogynistic group made by men not only ruins the experience of watching and enjoying hockey but makes us feel insecure about our passions and likes.
How We Can Start Uplifting Female Fans
Girls At the Games is a Vancouver-based community dedicated to creating a safe space for female sports fans. Their website includes sports news written by women and hosts events for female fans during game days.
With this community, it opens a door for female fans to start to feel comfortable walking the streets and the arena proudly wearing their team’s jersey.
This is just the beginning. Female fans everywhere should never be criticized for loving a sport as much as a man would. By respecting female fans, we can create a welcoming and fun environment to cheer on our favourite teams and enjoy the love of the game.
References
Associated Press. (2022, June 25). NHL experiencing sustained growth with female, younger fans. Sportsnet.ca. https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/nhl-experiencing-sustained-growth-with-female-younger-fans/
CBC News. (2004, July 26). 5000 New Words. CBC News Indepth: Language. https://web.archive.org/web/20041013000318/http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/language/
Crawford, G., & Gosling, V. K. (2004). The Myth of the “Puck Bunny”: Female Fans and Men’s Ice Hockey. Sociology, 38(3), 477-493
Grace. [@nhltwts]. (2023, September 30). Being a female hockey fan is being afraid that a man will try to quiz ur hockey knowledge or ask [Post]. X. https://x.com/nhltwts/status/1708290050306314692?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1708290050306314692%7Ctwgr%5E1c06adc9f4092a77811b985340c808fea12e8d00%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fraeshellepascual.trubox.ca%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D69action%3Dedit
Kessel, P. (2014, December 4). How to support women hockey fans. PPP Leafs. https://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/
Maya. [@samsHOEnov]. (2022, March 24). Thinking about how teenage boys can be casual hockey enjoyers and not know necessarily everything about the game and its [Image attached] [Post]. X. https://x.com/samsHOEnov/status/1507181478907686919?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1507181478907686919%7Ctwgr%5E7961b10caac31d510af1b5cb03b537e459a4e08c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fraeshellepascual.trubox.ca%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D69action%3Dedit
Mer. (2020, July 17). Girls will be girls: A look at the online female fan experience. TheLeafsNation. https://theleafsnation.com/news/63896?ref=pensionplanpuppets.com
Skelly, R. (2024, October 14). Society needs to respect female sports fans. The Daily Campus. https://dailycampus.com/2024/10/14/society-needs-to-respect-female-sports-fans/
Tokash, A. (2013, February 13). Sports fans vs fan girls: What’s the difference? DGN Omega. https://dgnomega.org/13866/opinion/sports-fans-vs-fan-girls-whats-the-difference/
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