Monday, November 14, 2005
Riddle me this:
Dave Wallace/AP Photo found here
What do college football, psychology, and the color pink have to do with one and other?
If your answer had something to do with the visitor's locker room at the University of Iowa, then you either went to Iowa or you likely saw the same Sports Center segment that I did. (Also see here).
According to an ESPN report there are some complaints about the color scheme. "Critics say the use of pink demeans women, perpetuates offensive stereotypes about women and homosexuality, and puts the university in the uncomfortable position of tacitly supporting those messages."
Now, I for one do not agree with this charge, and would like to pose a question to critics of Iowa's aesthetic choices. Is the color pink really an automatic, guarenteed association with weakness-as-a-feminine-trait? What do those who answer yes have to say to the businessmen who sport pink shirts? (Doubters may see here, here (see 'brick'), here (see 'picante'), here (second row, on the left), and here for examples of men's fashion making use of the color pink.)
Now, do the stereotypes discussed really persist because of the visitor's locker room at Iowa? More to the point, does the locker room at Iowa really perpetuate negative sterotypes about women? Is it not possible that it is the calming affect, the mood pacification that Iowa seeks to utilize against its opponents, rather than passively calling them girls? I for one think that those critics who argue that the decor promotes negative stereotypes about weakness in women are doing more to promote the stereotype themselves than the pink locker room does.
By coming down so hard on Iowa's color choices, opponents of the pink are, no pun intended, painting the locker room with their own negative images of the color pink. It would be different if Iowa hung signs in the locker room that said 'we painted the room for you, sissies!' or 'we knoiw you women like pink, so we thought we would make you feel at home!', as this would clearly be playing to the negative stereotypes. But to suggest that a color choice is indicative of a latent bias against women simply because pink is not the first color a young male wears is, in my opinion, overly sensitive and downright silly.
While I don't disagree that there are subliminal associations made with pink in American culture, I do not think that there is any need to be offended in this case. I wonder whether or not the same uproar would have resulted from a women's athletics team painting their oppoenent's locker room pink. Would the girls be guilty of hating on themselves, or is this merely an impotent outrage fueled by the percieved injustice of a men's program? I do not mean to sound unsympathetic to the plight of Women, as sexism is a pervasive force in society. However, I do not think that the case of the Iowa locker room falls into this category.
I will leave it to readers, though, to decide. Should the visitor's locker room at the University of Iowa be re-painted, or should these various law professors get back to what they are being paid to do?
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