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Popular Culture Review
Beyond First Base: Groupies, Baseball Players, and Sex
Groupies can access the rewards baseball players offer most easily
through sex, an exchange that both groupies and athletes are socialized to
recognize and expect (Hoch 1980). These women assert that sexuality and coital
acts dominate their exchange relationships with baseball players, even though
groupies do not all exchange sex for the same rewards. For Lisa, pursuing sex
with athletes is a game she enjoys playing:
Believe me, there’s always a guy watching to see if he can get
some pussy from you. Sometimes, I’ll let him, or, uh,
sometimes not. . . It’s just about getting laid. That’s it. They
just move from one woman to the next and I, uh, make my
place in the rotation or, uh, when I don’t want to do this
anymore, I’ll move on to something else.
Roxanne, however, has another purpose for using her sexuality:
Roxanne: I try to be provocative, but not look like a slut. You
can tell the girls out here who just want to get laid. I really
have to make it a point to stay away from that ‘‘look” and to
steer clear of those girls, too. Being considered a slut, you
know like they are, could really ruin my chances . . . for a
date. I don’t want the guys to think I’m easy because that’s
not the kind of girl they want to really be with.
Connie: What kind of girl do you think they want?
Roxanne: A nice girl. You know, a girl, a woman really, that
is pretty and smart and who knows how to act. I mean, these
guys get a lot of attention, you know, like from TV and
newspaper people . . . and, uh,