The extant scholarship on the 1978 World Cup interprets it as a masculinist and nationalist spectacle that conflated the virility of the Argentine team with the power of the military that ruled the country from 1976 to 1983. However, women’s participation throughout the contest suggests an alternate and complimentary reading wherein their presence evidences a feminized Patria or homeland. Where the dictatorship rhetoric constructed the military as a masculine protector, such female participation in the World Cup echoed the construction of nation as vulnerable feminized “home.”
The celebrations that kicked off the 1978 World Cup in Buenos Aires included presentations by military leaders and choreographed dances by young female performers on the stadium's field. In the months leading up to the event, organizers recruited young women to serve as guides to visitors drawn to Argentina for the event. Moreover, press coverage expressed surprise at what was considered women’s unusually high interest in the sport, concluding that national pride overwhelmed their previous disinterest in soccer. These female participants in the games and the festivities around the event stood in stark contrast to the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who marched weekly in protest of the forced disappearance of their children at the hands of the oppressive dictatorship, drawing the attention of international visitors to Buenos Aires during the event.
This paper highlights female participation during the 1978 World Cup, particularly the ways in which the military government strategically deployed women’s interest in the sport to demonstrate the strength and unity of the nation for international observers. Drawing on audiovisual and press sources and re-centering analysis of the event around female participation, the paper argues that such activities played a crucial role in constructing a feminized Patria.
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