Recently, Donald Trump was under fire for the misogynistic language he used in 2005 where he described grabbing a woman's genitals without their consent. At the presidential debate a few nights ago, he described this as nothing more than “Locker room talk,” which in itself is extremely problematic but we can save that conversation for another time.
In the aftermath of the debate, professional athletes began tweeting about how they never heard such language used in their locker room settings and how this kind of language was an isolated incident specific to Donald Trump. *See examples below
Now, I desperately want to believe that sexist rhetoric like the language used by Donald Trump is specific to an old, disgusting man running for president, but culture, society, and just plain logic have taught me otherwise.
Growing up as a male and being in various spaces where “locker room talk” was not only common but also encouraged and perpetuated by other males has made me lose faith in the idea that locker room talk is not as vulgar or as commonly used as these professional athletes insinuated.
In order to understand how this phenomenon came to be, we must first start by addressing what it is. The idea of “locker room talk” is how a lot of males interact with one another on a daily basis. The locker room is a metaphor for whenever men, specifically heterosexual men, are surrounded by other men discussing women in any sort of sexual way. From my personal experience, I’ve heard conversations about getting women to the “right alcohol level,” in order to make it easier to sleep with them. I’ve heard men degrade and rate women. And I’ve heard plenty of men talk about sleeping with women without their consent. These conversations are just as bad if not worse than the one Donald Trump was caught having. And the reason I bring this up is because I’m positive that I am just one of millions of men who’ve heard this kind language.
I share this with you not to trivialize what Donald Trump stated, but to inform you that this is not rare or some kind of new revelation. Men, including many athletes, have been having these conversations for years, or have we all suddenly forgotten about Brock Turner? From high school to college to the real world, men have historically expressed their masculinity through the sexual objectification and defamation of women. And so it really pissed me off that instead of addressing the issues of masculinity in our society, these professional athletes brushed it off by separating themselves from Trump and his comments.
Athletes and sports culture is part of the problem. Sports have always been a way for men to show off their masculinity, on and off the field. Athletes consistently police each other's masculinity, which puts pressure on these men to meet expectations that are nearly impossible. Not to mention the countless athletes who have gotten away with sexually assaulting women and have gotten little to no repercussions: Ben Roethlisberger from the Steelers as well as Ray Rice from the Baltimore Ravens, to name a few.
Masculinity is not the problem, but the way we socialize our boys to think about masculinity is. If we are going to talk about stopping this kind of behavior we must first admit to ourselves and each other that it exists. These problematic ideas of what it means to be a man have been perpetuated through various institutions such as fraternities, the military, media, and yes even sports. And yet, for some strange reason, we’d rather believe that this is the opinion of just one terrible man and fail to recognize that he didn’t come up with this bullshit on his own but he was taught. Just like it is taught to all of our boys growing up in American society.
So no I do not praise these professional athletes for tweeting about "locker room talk," because at the end of the day they may have just done more harm than good.
