Locker Room Talk

After the Trump video surfaced yesterday many people dismissed it as “locker room talk”. Not only does that miss the point and condone rape culture, it’s also deeply insulting to athletes.

I was fortunate enough to manage our high school rugby team for three years. Usually one of two girls among up to forty guys.

The players and the coaches always treated me with respect even though we weren’t really friends beyond the game. It was through this group of sweaty, smelly, mud-caked boys that I developed my love of sports journalism. To their credit they allowed me to document games with my camera often showing me more respect than I would get later on in my career.

I mean, they were still teenage boys. And in hotel rooms, locker rooms and on the bus I heard my fair share of colourful banter. About themselves mostly but also about girls. Just as among girls we talked about the boys. Adolescence is a time of discovery after all.

But never, not once, did they say anything that approached what Trump said. Their banter didn’t include feeling entitled to grab females without permission. They didn’t brag about sexual assault being accepted if you’re popular. In fact, being a 90s Riot Grrl who published her own feminist ‘zine there wasn’t a single time I can recall that I objected to their behaviour.

That’s three teams of rotating players over multiple ages and four coaches.

Not only did I never hear them talk that way, I never once had a concern for my own safety. Not on the field, the bus, the locker room or when they had too much to drink after games.

I wish the same could be said for the rest of my experience with men. For all the times I’ve encountered sexism, unwanted touching and threatening comments none of them were from athletes.

So to any of the guys who were on those teams, thank you. You remain the most decent group I’ve had the pleasure of photographing and hanging out with.