Actually, It IS a Big Deal: The Pink Locker Room and Discrimination

8th Annual Iowa Governors Conference on LGBTQ Youth April 3, 2013

Your presenters today:

Jill Gaulding Lisa Stratton

Lets get startedwhy dont you ever want to send the ZZs for Bud Light?

Why do the Mariners have the newest rookie wear a pink backpack decorated in the taste of a little girl?

Why does the toughest sheriff in America make prisoners wear pink?

Why do officials in Thailand discipline officers who break work rules by forcing them to wear pink armbands?

And why does the University of Iowa have a Pink Locker Room for visiting players?

What Hayden Fry himself said:

One thing should be clear this is not about Iowa or Iowans, despite what some may want to think:

Actually, not just UI, but the ENTIRE state of Iowa, has long been thought of nationally as sexist and homophobic and redneck and mentally challengedWhy anyone other than pig and corn farmers would want to live there is beyond the ken of most of the nation.
-quote from supposedly supportive email, regarding 2005 controversy over University of Iowas newly rebuilt Pink Locker Room

The real question: what message does a Pink Locker Room convey?

And the game has already begun because why, exactly? Because the other team is feeling calm?

Some honest reactions (from supporters of the tradition):

Oh, cmonof COURSE the football team painted the locker room pink to imply that the visiting team was a bunch of ladies. Whos seriously denying that?

Has any man posting to this thread [re the UI Pink Locker Room] ever played a team sport and not had at least one coach deride the team by calling them girls or ladies? Does anyone really think that the idea of painting the locker room pink had nothing at all to do with the stereotype?

Dont be deliberately obtuse. Of course it is meant to shame and humiliate. Thats the thing that pisses women off about it. [Its about being] weak, dainty, shameful, helpless, useless, etc.

Youre free not to give a ___, but you have to be an idiot not to pick up on the misogynist slam. What if the tradition was painting watermelon all over the walls. Or putting a giant menorah in the locker room. Or maybe pansy print wallpaper. Its just another way to say: Youre all a bunch of [fill in your favorite epithet].

From a visiting player:

Senior Penn State offensive tackle Gerlad Cadogansaid Tuesday that pink is a color normally associated with feminine characteristics and Iowas goal is to intimidate opponents by making them feel soft. [But] its effects could backfire on the Hawkeyes. Some teams get mad, some teams get psyched up.

I saw the pink locker room as a true freshman, [Illinois senior quarterback Dustin] Ward said. It's kind of hard not to notice it. It's all around you. It sets the tone, that they're not respecting you. It gets you ready to go.

But should we be discussing this at a conference focused on LGBTQ youth?

YES.

Definitely.

Its true that a SEXIST tradition hurts women and girls:

[D]iscrimination against effeminate men is often a way of policing gender roles. . . .Such discrimination pushes men to act in hypermasculine and traditionally macho ways. While such role policing certainly confines men, it also undermines womens ability to compete successfully. . . .Enforcing a code of hypermasculinity on male[s] reinforces womens position as different and other. Moreover, hypermasculinity defines itself not only as different from that which is female but as distinctly superior to it.

But the Pink Locker Room tradition is both homophobic and sexist:
The teaching of male dominance through male athletic culture [e.g. by putting down girls] is not limited to the privileging of male athletes exercise of dominance over women.The linkage of sport and masculinity privileges a particular type of heterosexist masculinity that can be furthered by exercising dominance over men whose masculinity is perceived as vulnerable to challenge.

Once again, in the honest words of the traditions supporters:

GIRLS and GAY men are effeminate, they ARE weakerthe pink is used to try and upset the opposing teamI cant believe you liberals are going to outlaw colors now. The pink locker-rooms ARE a symbol, they ARE intended to insult, and they ARE intended to demoralize. They convey that the opposing football team is a bunch of sissies who will be beaten on the field because they are weak and soft.

These ideas are not limited to football or even sports:

And I think we know why

When we absorb these ideas, it can lead to something called cognitive bias.

Cognitive bias is also known as implicit bias unconscious bias hidden bias unexamined bias or

implicit social cognition

For all of these reasons you might conclude that the tradition is not just wrong, but also illegal:

Per Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. 1681(a) No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

The Department of Educations guidance to schools reflects [the anti-essentialist goals of Title IX] by specifically stating that claims of harassment on the basis of the victims failure to conform to stereotyped notions of masculinity and femininity are covered under Title IX.

And yet

And also

Thats why we think that the Pink Locker Room tradition is a big deal. What do you think?

Thank you!
Jill Gaulding and Lisa Stratton Gender Justice 550 Rice Street Saint Paul, MN 55103 651.789.2090 www.genderjustice.us jill.gaulding@genderjustice.us lisa.stratton@genderjustice.us