Changing the Game: Brenda Elsey Megan Byrd
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renda Elsey is someone who has a keen eye for the stories that our general histories leave out. A Professor of History at Hofstra University, Elsey has also directed the Women’s Studies program, and is co-director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies program, so it makes sense that much of her work lives at the intersection of gender and social justice. Her newest book, Futbolera: A History of Women and Sports in Latin America (University of Texas Press, May 2019), co-written with Joshua Nadel, interrogates a missing piece of social history. “I first became interested in Latin America as a place of political innovation,” Elsey said. “As I traveled through the region, soccer was a constant. It seemed an obvious point of entry for a student of gender and class history. When I couldn’t find scholarly studies, I figured I may be able to contribute to writing that history.” Elsey’s first book, Citizens and Sportsmen: Fútbol and Politics in Twentieth-Century Chile (University of Texas, 2011) was entirely about men. Elsey attributes this to social issues occurring in Latin America at that time. “Women’s sports is not used as part of national identity in the same way as men’s is. In the case of men’s soccer, I could use it as a lens to understand national identity, the government’s interference in cultural affairs, and, depending on which government I was talking about, I could use it to think about professionalization, and ideals of masculinity,” Elsey said. Futbolera changes this notion, opening up an entirely new conversation about the role gender plays in both soccer and athleticism. In the book’s introduction, the term Futbolera is described as: a deceptively straightforward way to refer to a girl or a woman who plays football, or soccer. …They thus serve as metaphors for women’s appearance in the historical narrative. When raised in public debate, the futbolera was Faculty Spotlight 51
