Abstract
Based on three-months ethnographic fieldwork spent with the Santos FC women’s team, this article considers how women players negotiate the tensions between the club’s invented gendered tradition and their formal inclusion into the club. Using Hobsbawm’s concept of Invented Traditions and adapting Billig’s banal nationalism to banal patriarchy, the article explores the experiences of women players within one of Brazil’s most emblematic clubs. Whilst men no longer have a monopoly on officialised club football, the article concludes that incorporating the accrued cultural capital of women’s football at clubs like Santos is vital to dislodge and de-stabilise the perceived masculine tradition and history of the club.
Keywords:
Football; Research report; Ethnography