Match of the Day 2 from last month featured the highlights of Liverpool
hosting Manchester United at Anfield. The BBC build-up included a clever
montage of cultural and technological events and developments from the past
three decades, since Liverpool’s last title win all the way back in 1990. As a cautious, pessimistic and long suffering Liverpool fan, our current
very healthy lead means that even I am now starting to feel comfortable with
the term ‘champions elect’. However, the Match of the Day 2 montage was not
pleasant viewing for me, as it highlighted just how long our title drought has
been and how the world has changed since 1990, not to mention how Manchester
United have prospered during our prolonged doldrums period.
Liverpool's last title win, in 1989-1990
Interspersed with clips of The Spice Girls, Britney Spears, the
evolution of mobile phone technology and the arrival of Facebook was the near
constant clicking by of the title numbers for Manchester United, from 7 in 1990
steadily through to the current 20, while Liverpool’s total remained stubbornly
stuck at their 1990 total of 18. At least the producers had the good grace to
show Liverpool’s 18 turning irresistibly in the direction of 19 at the very
end.
Things that have happened since 1990: The Spice Girls
A mobile phone user around 1990
The long list of technological and cultural changes also got me thinking of more subtle and at times controversial societal changes of the past thirty years, which brings me to the issue of gender identity. Back in 1990, it was generally assumed (using a binary way of thinking) that people were almost invariably what we now term cis-gendered, i.e. having the gender that matched their biological sex. But over the past 30 years (and especially the past decade) we have seen a change in how we view gender identity, both scientifically and culturally.
A quick internet search reveals that, along with well established terms
such as transsexual and transgender, there is now a long list of increasingly
novel (and largely post 1990) concepts and terms to describe one’s gender, such
as non-binary, genderfluid, agender, polygender, gender apathetic, demigender
and intersex. To make it even more complex, you can add in sexual orientation
(or lack thereof) into the mix. The bottom line is, you can’t simply assume (as
you might have back in 1990) that everyone is (to use the modern lingo) a
cis-gendered heterosexual. And so it seems that the traditional ‘binary’ view
of gender has become a very 20th century and somewhat outdated
kind of idea. The acronyms used to describe the different types of people who
are not cis-gendered or heterosexual have also expanded gradually over the
years, to now super-acronymic levels such as LGBTQIA, or even
longer.
LGBT activists
LGBT activists
And that (finally) brings me on to the topic of football and team
fandom. Despite the fluid and spectrumal ways in which our society now views
gender and sexuality, fandom of football clubs is pretty categorical and
unchanging. The term ‘binary’ can still be accurately applied to football
fandom, in that e.g. Liverpool fans are Liverpool fans only and can NEVER also
be Manchester United or Everton fans, just as West Ham fans can NEVER also be
fans of Millwall, Spurs or (especially) Sheffield United.
But I wonder if maybe we should start trying to apply 21st Century
ideas on gender identity and sexuality to football fandom? Maybe we shouldn’t
be so categorical and binary in how we define our most cherished (and most
hated) clubs? And maybe we should ask ourselves if it is possible to identify
as a fan of more than just one club. To put it simply: is it possible
to be a trans-fan?
The upcoming visit of West Ham to Anfield next week has got me thinking
of my one brief and inadvertent flirtation with trans-fandom, from their
meeting at the London Stadium in February of last year. Again, Liverpool were
on top of the Premier League at that stage, but only by two points, and there
was a nagging sense that the White Walkers of Manchester City were trudging
grimly and steadily through the snow and ice to destroy our title dreams again.
My trans-fandom experience started off innocently enough. Travelling to
the game with another Irish Liverpool fan and with Mr. Verywestham himself (who
was our very kind and generous host and guide check out his wonderful website www.verywestham.com), the trans-fandom began with the seemingly
innocent gift of a half-and-half scarf from him. I gladly accepted the scarf,
not fully realising that such a scarf is surely the ultimate symbol of
trans-fandom. But I didn’t give it much thought. In fact, I was somewhat
trans-fan-curious.
I then considered eating a pre-match Eastend pie of some sort, with
congealed gravy. However, I resisted this delicacy and went for a burger
instead. Inside the stadium, I sat among the home supporters and, closeting my
red-hot Liverpool fandom, sat on my hands with an expressionless face when
Sadio Mané banged in the 22nd minute (admittedly offside)
opener for Liverpool. I found it difficult and strange, but I managed to
observe the Premier League protocol of keeping your mouth shut when your team
scores and you’re in with the opposition fans (in Ireland, we’re used to
Hurling and Gaelic Football fans mix freely regardless of their allegiances). I
fantasized briefly about being in the Anfield Kop at such a moment and getting
carried away in uninhibited celebration.
The early goal, the plush surrounds of the London Stadium and the great
company of Mr. Verywestham and the other Liverpool fan (also uncomfortably
concealing his true identity) meant that I was really enjoying the experience.
I almost joined in with a brief rendition of ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’. I
felt a tug towards trans-fandom, and I have to admit that it felt alright.
Besides, it was easy to have warm feelings towards the Hammers when we had just
taken the lead and extended our ‘as it stands’ Premier League lead over
Manchester City to 5 points.
But then, just six minutes after that Mané opener, I had the ultimate
test of my emerging trans-fandom. In what would prove to be a season defining
moment, Michail Antonio scored the Hammers’ equaliser after 28 minutes. Again,
I kept the same expressionless posture and demeanour as I had after Mané’s
goal. But inside I was crying. The enforced neutral expression made the pain
even harder to deal with. And not a single fibre in my body could feel any joy
at Antonio’s goal. Knowing deep down that the White Walkers were now going to
get us and that this season was yet another false dawn, I texted a fellow long
suffering Liverpool fan back in Ireland with the fatalistic words: ‘It’s
happening again’. Unfortunately, I was to be proven right ultimately. Antonio’s
goal away back in February was to be the difference between Liverpool winning
and losing the 2018-2019 title.
So maybe trans-fandom is possible for some, but it certainly isn’t my
cup of tea. I’m a binary Liverpool only fan. Ultimately, my brief experience of
trans-fandom just felt strange. If I was truly a trans-fan, I could have
cheered even a little for Antonio’s equaliser, instead of crying inside. And I
could have done a bit of singing at the London Stadium or at least had a nibble
of that gravy covered pie.
But if I was going to become a trans-fan, surely West Ham are an ideal
other team to identify with, considering my friendship with the Verywestham
team, the great football heritage of their club, the many players who have
played for both Liverpool and West Ham over the years (see Verywestham’s super
piece on this: http://www.verywestham.com/2014/04/the-west-pool-xi-those-who-served-as.html)
and (apart from the
2006 FA Cup Final) the fact that the two clubs have never really crossed swords
in anger or in any way controversially. As a Liverpool/West Ham trans-fan, I could
even take on a 21st Century acronymic descriptor combining the
battle cries of the two clubs, identifying as ‘YNWA-COYI’.
All that being said, while I could never be a trans-fan (and maybe the
whole concept of trans-fandom is just crazy), you can always have a second
favourite club, and West Ham is mine. So I will end my pre-match musings with
another dip back in to 1990s popular culture and the 1993 Tarantino classic
film ‘True Romance’, by paraphrasing Clarence (played masterfully by Christian
Slater) in that bar-room scene: ‘I ain’t no trans-fan…but if I had to
identify with a second club…it would be West Ham’.
