In the hours after Sunday night's presidential debate, professional athletes rushed to Twitter to denounce Republican nominee Donald Trump's crude illustration of a locker room. Wrote former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, "I was in an NFL locker room for eight years, the very definition of the macho, alpha male environment you're so feebly trying to evoke to protect yourself, and not once did anyone approach your breathtaking depths of arrogant imbecility."
Locker rooms have been the focus of much attention in the days since The Washington Post released a 2005 recording of Trump bragging about his behavior with women, including grabbing them by their genitals without their consent. In a statement posted several hours after the tape was released, Trump called his words "locker room banter," and he echoed that sentiment Sunday night.
"I don't think you understood what was -- this was locker room talk," Trump said. "I'm not proud of it. I apologize to my family. I apologize to the American people. Certainly I'm not proud of it. But this is locker room talk."
It shouldn't be a surprise that Trump rushed to the safety of the locker room to excuse his words. For years players, coaches and media have excused crude language, hate speech, immorality and even criminal acts in actual locker rooms as toughening-up exercises, harmless hazing or even team bonding.
Even as the world around it evolves, the sports sphere is still very much a haven for antiquated ideas, misogynistic beliefs and over-the-top masculinity. By making the locker room a sort of mythologized space where men are free to shed the morality and humanity of the outside world, we're, in essence, excusing that behavior.
When the Miami Dolphins locker room was splintered by the Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin bullying scandal, former players came out in droves to mansplain how Incognito's actions were just a part of locker room "culture." Incognito called his words and actions an indication of the team's "closeness" and "brotherhood."
In case you've forgotten, Incognito regularly hurled slurs and threats at Martin, texted with a teammate about rifle scopes that are "perfect for shooting black people" and directed racial slurs at the Dolphins' assistant trainer, who was born in Japan. The Dolphins fired offensive line coach Jim Turner and head athletics trainer Kevin O'Neill in the fallout after a workplace harassment report was released, but multiple sources reported that Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland told Martin's agent that Martin could've stopped the bullying and avoided disrupting the team had he simply punched Incognito. And that sentiment wasn't just expressed internally, plenty of players-turned-media agreed that Martin should've retaliated with his fists.
Not surprisingly, the "solve it with violence" strategy doesn't always produce the best results. A couple of years after the Dolphins' incident, Jets quarterback Geno Smith missed two months of football and, ultimately, lost the starting job after getting punched in the face by then-teammate IK Enemkpali. A five-million dollar guy playing the most important position on the field was on the bench because of "locker room culture."
The locker room, no matter how different it may be from a boardroom, a factory or a cubicle, is still a workplace. Of course, each workplace will have different standards for what's deemed socially acceptable; a bar will have different standards than a kindergarten classroom. But a workplace should always feel safe -- physically, mentally and emotionally -- for all employees. Trump felt secure seeking solace in the notion of a locker room because for years we've made excuses for actions that should be inexcusable in any venue, under the cover of a culture that should have been left behind years ago.
It's the same sort of thinking that goes on when schools send girls home to change clothes because their legs, arms, shoulders, collarbones or chest are "distracting" to boys. Arguing that "boys will be boys" and they can't be expected to control themselves is as insulting as assuming that grown men are incapable of acting appropriately in a locker room.
So while I understand athletes wanting to put distance between themselves and Trump's comments, they -- and we -- should be just as invested in making locker rooms a place people no longer go to hide.