<div dir="ltr"><div><div>Regarding the implications of talk of "locker room talk" for athletes, a couple years ago I taught a linguistic anthropology of "gossip, rumor, and lies" at University of Michigan. Among my students were four members of college football team, one of whom made a short presentation on "the locker room." His argument was that the locker room was a work space not entirely dissimilar to an office of cubicles: there were some corners in which you *could* have a more personal conversation, but you were still at work. According to my student, locker room talk was actually more likely to be about homework than about women. The real gossip, he claimed, came after practice, on the walk home. His teammates nodded emphatically in agreement.<br><br></div>I don't think the student was at all suggesting that the kind of talk often associated with locker rooms does not in fact take place among football players. However, I found it intriguing that this football player, unprompted, chose to emphasize -- for the entire class -- that the locker room was a place for 'work' rather than 'gossip.' <br><br></div>-- Deborah --<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 5:31 AM, Woolard, Kathryn <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kwoolard@ucsd.edu" target="_blank">kwoolard@ucsd.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Hi all – <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">There’s a lot of expertise on gender and discourse on this listserv. Is anyone poised/ working on an op-ed piece and/or well-placed blogpost taking apart , for a general audience, the repeated invocation of
“locker room talk” as a defense of bragging about sexual assault? <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">E.g., what/where is this canonical “locker room” that excuses bragging about criminal sexual harassment, in the long-established age of Title IX? And, what are the implications of this genre defense for
athletes in high schools and colleges, in addition to professional teams, in a time of such public concern about sexual assault on campuses and highly publicized incidents so often involving athletes? <u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">I can’t write it, though I wish it could; I hope some of my talented, knowledgeable colleagues who can write for a broad public are working on it!<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Thanks –<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Kit<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:black">Kathryn A. Woolard, Professor<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:black">Department of Anthropology, 0532<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:black">UCSD<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:black">9500 Gilman Drive<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:black">La Jolla, CA 92093-0532<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:black"><a href="mailto:kwoolard@ucsd.edu" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563c1">kwoolard@ucsd.edu</span></a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:black">New book: <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/singular-and-plural-9780190258627?q=woolard&lang=en&cc=us" target="_blank">
<span style="color:#0563c1">https://global.oup.com/<wbr>academic/product/singular-and-<wbr>plural-9780190258627?q=<wbr>woolard&lang=en&cc=us</span></a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;color:black"> <u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>Deborah A. Jones<br><br><div>PhD Candidate<br></div><div>Dept. of Anthropology<br><span>University of Michigan</span><br></div><div>101 West Hall<br></div><div>1085 S. University Avenue<br></div><div>Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1107 USA<br></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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