Support women's sports and SHARE this story with your friends!

DISCLAIMER: This will probably turn out to be more of a rant than a thoughtful post.

I was playing co-ed drop-in hockey this morning and one of the guys on my team was wearing a jersey with the name "Multiple Scorgasms". Classy right? The piece de resistance was the logo that went with in - a silhouette of a woman bent over provocatively butt towards the voyeur, of course. Being a feminist hockey player really sucks sometimes, and this was one of those times. This guy probably doesn't give a rats butt what I think about his "team name" (on the other hand maybe he does) but I chose to suppress all of my feminist theory and instead take it out on my keyboard as I type this post.


Victorious Secret. Photo from Puck Daddy.

Team names for beer league teams are a great way to create a collective identity and show off your creativity. It's also a great way to reproduce the ideas that (a) women don't belong in hockey and (b) women are sexual objects who exist only to be used by men. "Relax, it's just a funny name. It's doesn't mean anything," I'm sure is what some of you may be thinking. Problem is, those actions that come from so-called "meaningless places" really do come from a larger place of meaning and significance. Women continue to be raped and beaten on a daily basis and we continue to blame women for the violence that befalls them (e.g. why did she open the door? why was she out that late? if she wasn't looking for trouble why was she dressed like that?). So sure, maybe sexualizing women would be funny if it didn't happen on a daily basis to real people. Could you get away with naming your beer league team something overtly racist? Perhaps some clever alliteration with lynch? Could you get away with naming your beer league team some funny rhyme about pedophilia with a corresponding logo? My guess is no. Then why is it that we, as a society, still allow men's teams to demean women and make women the butt of the joke?

I write this because the number of t-shirt logos, jersey logos and other random paraphernalia that I have seen in recent years with silhouettes of naked/half naked women in suggestive poses seems to have increased. At a tennis tournament a few years back a guy I knew competed wearing a t-shirt with a silhouette of a woman with a thong around her ankles. Certainly taints the image of tennis players in their prim and proper all-whites. Guys can say "well no one is stopping you from coming up with lude/suggestive team names/logos about men". True. But this is not the equality we are looking for. Also, there is nothing that women can come up with that would ever suggest the same kind of violence against men because that underlying fear and history does not exist. Young men are not taught to watch their drinks when they are out because there is always someone lurking at the bar trying to drug you. The relation of power for women does not exist, currently, to allow women to "retaliate" in the same manner. I suspect the only thing that would come close for men to ever understanding the victimization that women feel is if a gay men's hockey team were to create a suggestive logo and team name that depicted men as passive objects of sexual desire (I welcome discussion on this point, or any other for that matter).

Anyways, you may not think that your "funny" team name/logo is a big deal and, technically, it's not. But you would be naive not to understand that your little team absolutely contributes to the sturdy foundation upon which violence against women is built upon. Pick another name. Perhaps something more creative, like this one:


Photo from Puck Daddy.

Or my personal favourite:


Photo from Puck Daddy.

Support women's sports and SHARE this story with your friends!

• Ice Hockey
• Sports
• SportsPLUS
• Sexism
• Men's Sports

View Original Post at cszto.blogspot.com

View Resident_Badass's Full Profile

No one has commented on this yet. Be the first!

Leave Your Comment:  Read our comment policy

Login  |  Sign Up

LOGIN TO WOMEN TALK SPORTS:

Username: 

Password: 

SIGNUP FOR A WOMEN TALK SPORTS ACCOUNT:

A Women Talk Sports account allows you to maintain a profile at www.womentalksports.com and login to comment on posts using your WTS identity.

Fields marked with a * are required.

Your First Name*: 

Your Last Name*: 

Your E-mail*: 

Your Website: 

Your Location: 

Your Twitter Username: 

Create a WTS Username*: 

Create a Password*: 

Confirm Password*: 

Check here to receive bi-weekly emails from Women Talk Sports and partners highlighting discussions on our site and upcoming women's sporting events, as well as informing you of new products, services and special offers.

I accept the Terms & Conditions for joining Women Talk Sports