Not In My Locker Room - Dave Zirin

[DinahMoeHum]

https://socialistworker.org/2016/10/12/not-in-my-locker-room

Donald Trump wants to pass off his sickening sexism as "locker-room" banter, but Nation columnist Dave Zirin says we shouldn't put up with it in any room.

(snip)
LET'S DISCUSS "locker-room talk." At the second presidential debate, Donald Trump defended taped comments that he likes to "grab [women] by the pussy" as simply "locker-room talk" instead of what it was: boasting about sexual assault.

Immediately, social media were flooded with pro athletes, people who assumedly have spent a hell of a lot more time in locker rooms than Donald Trump, saying that this is a slander on their workplace.

I have also spent my share of time in locker rooms, and while I understand the desire to brand Donald Trump as a uniquely misogynistic liar, I cannot say that his comments are alien to a locker room. If only the sole alleged rapist to emerge from a locker room in this country was Donald Trump, but that's just not the truth. Read Jessica Luther's book Unsportsmanlike Conduct
http://www.akashicbooks.com/catalog/unsportsmanlike-conduct/
and get a crash course about how the locker room can be an incubator of rape and a fortress against anyone who would challenge this culture.

I also, however, have no doubt that the athletes who are coming forward to say that they never heard rape talk in the locker room are telling the truth. Again, I have been in many locker rooms, and it is absolutely true that there is no steady stream of banter--liberated to talk freely without the tender ears of lady-folk--blabbing about how they love to assault women. I personally have heard it only twice out of hundreds of locker-room interactions as an athlete or reporter. But both times, the words and deeds were anything but benign.
(snip)

More at the link:
https://socialistworker.org/2016/10/12/not-in-my-locker-room

The original, at The Nation:
https://www.thenation.com/article/not-in-my-locker-room/