Last bastion of blokiness reeks of a new odour
IT’S official: locker room talk is dead. Despite surviving allegations of sexism, the promotion of rape culture and bigotry, it has, at last, been silenced.
Those who mourn its absence may want to take a moment to recall Donald Trump’s description of his “grab them by the p **** ” comments as his own version of locker room talk, surely a peak moment for its proponents.
But now, there is no more boasting about sexual conquests to be heard, no more degrading comments about the female anatomy, no more racist jokes from people who “aren’t racist, in fact, some of their best friends are black”.
Don’t blame political correctness, if anything the PC culture only fuelled the appetite for this discourse. Instead, blame gambling. As a female, let alone one who detests physical exertion of any variety, my awareness of what occurs in male locker rooms is limited. However, I have it on very good authority that while the smell remains the same (BO, Lynx, socks and
jocks), the sound is now of silence.
Instead of roughing up each other in one of the few permitted forms of male PDA (physical display of affection), their heads are now buried in their phones as they place their bets via whatever sports gambling app was no doubt advertised either during the game they just played or had recently watched.
OK, so I’m giving our sportsmen a tough time. Not all locker room talk is sexist and awful; in fact, there is something borderline beautiful about these blokes bonding in a male-only environment.
So I am actually a little sad that this has come to pass.
A friend told me he’s watched the death of the locker room culture (good and bad) over the last few years, and it’s coincided perfectly – and not coincidentally – with the rise of advertising for sports gambling.
“Back when I was young it was all alcohol and cigarette ads in sports and we’d get in the locker room and crack open a beer or spark up a durry and talk,” he says.
“But now it’s just silence. The guys come in and just open their phones and start punting. It’s pretty sad.”
While I’m yet to begin my comprehensive survey of men’s locker rooms (although I’m quite looking forward to it), this anecdotal evidence is backed up by more sobering statistics.
New research from the University of Warwick in England shows rapid increases in both the spend and influence of sport-related gambling advertising since 2013-14.
In Australia alone, gambling advertising investment has grown by
26 per cent to $140 million in the year to July 2018, even despite tougher restrictions introduced last year around when betting shops can run TV and online betting ads.
The new rules prevented gambling ads from being shown during live sport between the hours of 5am and 8.30pm to protect children. Similar restrictions also applied to online betting ads.
But there are two problems here.
One, the damage has already been done. Young men (and women) have been introduced to the world of sports gambling and are running with it. These learned habits are then passed on to friends and family, ultimately meaning their own children. And so a new generation of gamblers are born.
Two, these rules are not enough. While there may not be gambling commercials shown during game breaks, sports grounds are literally littered with static ads for those same companies.
While Geelong’s GMHBA Stadium is bucking that trend with news that it has become the first major AFL venue to ban gambling advertisements at matches, time will tell whether this becomes the norm.
Geelong, which has stopped gambling companies using its LED, static and big screen for advertising, made the decision after working in partnership with the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation, which recently released data showing 74 per cent of Victorians believe adolescents were exposed to excessive gambling advertising.
Still, it’s not easy to bet against gambling in Australia. In fact, a 1990 report by the Australian Institute of Criminology titled Gambling in Australia said: “Unlike most Western nations, Australian governments have actively encouraged a wide diversity in the types of legal gambling.”
Even yesterday, the Gold Coast Bulletin broke the news that the city’s pokie numbers keep climbing despite State Government promising no increase for a new gaming resort.
But if there’s one thing Aussies love more than a punt, it’s sport itself. And one is now ruining the other, even down to the grassroots level of our local locker rooms.
So let’s put the phones down, stop the punting and bring back locker room talk.
Just please, boys, keep it respectful this time. Do that and you’re backing a winner.
Read Ann Wason Moore every Tuesday and Saturday in the