At the Margins of the Minors
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unrelated to the rewards of conventional structures of male power. Sex provides
a telling and relevant example. In a relationship where a woman uses sex as her
medium of exchange, her ability to withhold sex can be a relationship power
play. However, her power in the relationship is diminished severely when there
is a market of other women who are also willing to offer the man sex, which
devalues the relative utility of the sex she offers. Moreover, if that woman
depends on the man solely for status outside of the relationship, the marketplace
of available sexual partners blocks her access to broader social power as it
diminishes her power within the relationship.
METHODS
Because so little literature exists regarding groupies9 motives and
behaviors, we seek to broadly understand their sexual relationships with athletes.
Groupies may be interested in entering relationships with athletes even though
the relationships are likely to be inherently imbalanced in terms of social, if not
interpersonal, power. We investigated related female disempowerment relative
to sexual commodification and objectification. We framed our research with
exchange theory, which provides insight into the dynamics of relationships in
terms of the rewards offered and received within a relationship, as well as the
distribution and exercise of power within these same relationships.
Data Collection and Analysis
For our purposes, groupies were women who claimed to be pursuing
sexual activity with a professional baseball player. We collected data in the
southwestern United States, focusing on groupies of the Cheyenne Coyotes, an
AA affiliate of the major league Portland Sailors (both names are pseudonyms).
To collect rich descriptive data, along with ethnographic detail, we conducted
in-depth interviews (McCracken 1988) with twelve groupies, who we met
through our gatekeeper, a self-defined groupie who provided access to others.
The data was thematically coded according to categories emerging from both the
literature review and the data. The primary coding categories emerging from the
literature review related to perceptions of marginalization and objectification. As
we discovered new categories in the data, we considered all of our data relative
to these discoveries.
FINDINGS
Both academic and popular writers suggest that groupies seek a break
from the mundane through relationships with celebrities of any magnitude (e.g.
Gmelch 2001). We find that groupies’ relationships with athletes are much more
complex than others have suggested, revealing the importance of sex, power,
and status as resources that are taken and given by the boys of summer.