[Linganth] "Locker room talk"?

[Deborah Jones]

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.

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.'

-- Deborah --

On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 5:31 AM, Woolard, Kathryn <kwoolard at ucsd.edu> wrote:

> Hi all –
>
>
>
> 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?
>
>
>
> 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?
>
>
>
> 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!
>
>
>
> Thanks –
>
> Kit
>
>
>
>
>
> Kathryn A. Woolard, Professor
>
> Department of Anthropology, 0532
>
> UCSD
>
> 9500 Gilman Drive
>
> La Jolla, CA 92093-0532
>
> kwoolard at ucsd.edu
>
>
>
> New book:  https://global.oup.com/academic/product/singular-and-
> plural-9780190258627?q=woolard&lang=en&cc=us
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>


-- 
Deborah A. Jones

PhD Candidate
Dept. of Anthropology
University of Michigan
101 West Hall
1085 S. University Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1107 USA
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