Gender Justice on "Pink Shaming" and the Pink Locker Room Tradition

7/29/2019 Gender Justice on "Pink Shaming" and the Pink Locker Room Tradition

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

and Discrimination

8thAnnual Iowa Governors

Conference on LGBTQ Youth

April 3, 2013


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Jill Gaulding Lisa Stratton

Your presenters today:


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Lets get startedwhy dont you ever

want to send the ZZs for Bud Light?


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Why do the Mariners have the newest

rookie wear a pink backpackdecorated in the taste of a little girl?


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Why does the toughest sheriff in

America make prisoners wear pink?


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Why do officials in Thailand discipline

officers who break work rules by

forcing them to wear pink armbands?


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And why does the University of Iowa have a Pink

Locker Room for visiting players?


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What Hayden Fry himself said:


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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 ofIowa, has long been thought of nationally as

sexist and homophobic and redneck andmentally challengedWhy anyone other thanpig and corn farmers would want to live there isbeyond the ken of most of the nation.

-quote from supposedly supportive email, regarding2005 controversy over University of Iowas newly rebuiltPink Locker Room


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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?


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Some honest reactions (from

supporters of the tradition):

Oh, cmonof COURSE the

football team painted the lockerroom pink to imply that the visiting

team was a bunch of ladies. Whos

seriously denying that?


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Has any man posting to this thread [re theUI Pink Locker Room] ever played a team

sport and nothad at least one coach

deride the team by calling them girls orladies? Does anyone really think that the

idea of painting the locker room pink had

nothing at all to do with the stereotype?


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Dont be deliberately obtuse. Ofcourse it is meant to shame andhumiliate. Thats the thing that pisses

women off about it.

[Its about being] weak, dainty,

shameful, helpless, useless, etc.


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Youre free not to give a ___, but you haveto be an idiot not to pick up on the

misogynist slam. What if the tradition was

painting watermelon all over the walls. Orputting a giant menorah in the locker

room. Or maybe pansy print wallpaper. Its

just another way to say: Youre all a bunchof [fill in your favorite epithet].


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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.


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I saw the pink locker room as a truefreshman, [Illinois senior quarterbackDustin] Ward said. It's kind of hard

not to notice it. It's all around you. Itsets the tone, that they're notrespecting you. It gets you ready to

go.


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But should we be discussing this at a

conference focused on LGBTQyouth?

YES. Definitely.


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Its true that a SEXIST tradition hurts

women and girls:

[D]iscrimination against effeminate men is often away of policing gender roles. . . .Such discriminationpushes men to act in hypermasculine andtraditionally macho ways. While such role policingcertainly confines men, it also undermines womensability to compete successfully. . . .Enforcing a codeof hypermasculinity on male[s] reinforces womensposition as different and other. Moreover,

hypermasculinity defines itself not only as differentfrom that which is female but as distinctly superiorto it.


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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 ofheterosexist masculinity that

can be furthered by exercising dominance overmen whose masculinity is perceived as

vulnerable to challenge.


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Once again, in the honest words of the

traditions supporters:

GIRLS and GAY men are effeminate, they AREweakerthe pink is used to try and upset theopposing teamI cant believe you liberals are

going to outlaw colors now.

The pink locker-rooms ARE a symbol, they AREintended to insult, and they ARE intended to

demoralize. They convey that the opposing footballteam is a bunch of sissies who will be beaten on thefield because they are weak and soft.


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These ideas are not limited to football

or even sports:


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And I think we know why


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When we absorb these ideas, it

can lead to something called

cognitive bias.


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Cognitivebias

is also known asimplicit bias

unconscious bias

hidden biasunexamined bias

or

implicit socialcognition


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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.


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The Department of Educations guidance toschools 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.


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And yet


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And also


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Thats why we think that thePink Locker Room tradition

is a big deal.

What do you think?


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Thank you!

Jill Gaulding and Lisa StrattonGender Justice

550 Rice Street

Saint Paul, MN 55103

651.789.2090www.genderjustice.us

[email protected]

[email protected]
http://www.genderjustice.us/http://www.genderjustice.us/

Gender Justice on "Pink Shaming" and the Pink Locker Room Tradition

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