A couple weeks ago, footage was released of Donald Trump engaging in what he called "locker room talk." This brought a lot of debate about if he is qualified to be president, if this is really comparable to what Bill Clinton did, and so on. The part of the conversation being pushed aside, though, is that of the "locker room talk" itself and just how harmful it can be.
"Locker room talk" is, first of all, a stereotype. It holds in itself the assumption that all boys talk about crude things in the locker room after gym class or a sports practice. It is the start of the problem.
There is a difference, though, between crude "locker room talk" and the rhetoric that perpetuates rape culture. One of them can be talking about consensual acts, whereas the other isn't. While crude talk is still something we avoid, it is not nearly as bad as the talk used to describe unwanted, nonconsensual, sexual acts.
What Trump was recorded saying back in 2005 is just an example of some of the talk that, without question, needs to stop. If we let people get away with comments like these, we are feeding the problem.
By brushing aside these comments as "locker room talk," we are letting boys think that it's okay to talk about forcing themselves on girls. By letting boys continue this type of "locker room talk," we are making girls defenseless against it. By making this "locker room talk" okay, we are making the wrong impressions on the next generation.
Children learn from the world around them. Letting our children think that talking about forcing themselves on someone is okay can make them think it's okay to actually do. We need to teach them that this is not okay. Let's teach them the difference between talking about crude things and talking about illegal, nonconsensual things.
Let's use instances like this to teach our children what not to do. Instead of fighting about the rights and wrongs of it, let's just work to make events like this happen less. Let's work to prevent them from happening anymore.
