| This dissertation, based on 56 in-depth, qualitative interviews with women who are Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) fans in two cities and qualitative content analysis of mainstream newspaper coverage of the WNBA, explores the dynamics of the uneasy relationship between lesbian's experiences as WNBA fans and the league's desire to market itself to heterosexual families with children. In the context of the "decentering" and fragmentation of the lesbian community (Stein 1992), I find that lesbian fans experience WNBA games as a temporary moment of "centering." At the same time, through its marketing and self-presentation to the mainstream press, the WNBA appropriates this lesbian community and culture by both commodifying and erasing it. Lesbian fans respond to this appropriation in ways that reflect recent changes in gay and lesbian identity. I argue that life "beyond the closet" (Seidman 2002) and threats to the life of the league lend themselves to political strategies aimed at achieving what I call "quiet" visibility rather than traditional post-Stonewall "outloud" visibility. |
