Pretty in pink? Some think not
 

Opponents seeing red over Iowa's pink locker room

Associated Press

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The pink visitors' locker room at the University of Iowa's stadium is making some people see red. AP Photo The locker room for visiting football teams at Iowa is pretty in pink. Several professors and students joined the call Tuesday for the athletic department to do away with the pink showers, carpeting and lockers, a decades-long Hawkeye football tradition. 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. ''I want the locker room gone,'' law school professor Jill Gaulding told a university committee studying the athletic department's compliance with NCAA standards, including gender equity. For decades, visiting football teams playing at Kinnick Stadium have dressed and showered in the pink locker room. The tradition was started by former Iowa coach Hayden Fry, a psychology major who said pink had a calming and passive effect on people. As part of the stadium's two-year, $88 million makeover, athletic officials took the former coach's interior decorating ideas to another level, splashing pink across the brick walls, shower floors and installing pink metal lockers, carpeting, sinks, showers and urinals. The controversy gained momentum and media attention last week when a visiting law school professor told reporters she had received death threats after voicing objections on her Web site.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2174828

Weenies

Ninnys.

You have to be fucking kidding me. Now a color is offensive?

For some reason I feel very calm and passive right now.

yeah

That is retarded, on so many levels.

Yeah I saw this a couple days ago. Of all the things in the world to be outraged about... "Yeah? Well fuck the starving! I'm going to dedicate my time, efforts and resources to changing the color of a locker room!"

If Fry said that the color had a calming and passive effect on people, then I would suggest that rather than blindly assuming it's a slander against women, they should check and see if there's anything to that. Not that it would stop the craziest of the PC nuts, but still...

Can we use these people to test NASA's next projects?

That is insane.

It demeans women? I suspect there really aren't very many women in there, at least not authorized.

Perpetuates offensive stereotypes about women and homosexuality? What? That they like pink? Big deal.

Death threats just for suggesting it be changed? Never underestimate the stupid people in this country.

Offensive to women? Let's see, considering most of the girls I know love the colour pink and freely admit to it, I don't think they'd find it offensive.

Fucking femi-Nazis.

Apparently, as I just googled it, there is something to it. hxxp://www.colormatters.com/body_pink.html

It's amazing how calm and passive I am after looking at that picture.

While I don't agree with those complaining, the controversy is a little different than has been described. The opponents are not claiming that the color pink is offensive. The problem they see is that Hayden said it was a color to turn the other team into "sissies" as part of his justification for it. "Sissy" is a word meant to demean men by calling them feminine or gay with another term. As a result, the opponents just think the whole pink locker room thing should be abandoned. If Hayden hadn't added the extra bit about "sissies," there wouldn't be a problem. As it is, I can't believe this is making national news - it really isn't a big deal and just involves a little hearing hear in Iowa City.

It's also a term that means timid and cowardly. Just because a word CAN have an effeminate meaning doesn't mean it's the only way someone can use the word. You are wrong if you think "sissy" is a word that is only used to indirectly call someone feminine or gay.

There are different listed, but related, definitions. However, IMO, the combination with painting the locker rooms pink, a color identified with gays and women, at least gives me the inclination that Hayden meant it as making the other team "sissies" in the sense of being girlish.

I don't agree with the argument, but I do think it is at least defensible. And if the media decides to report a silly local incident on a national scale, I at least want them to try to explain the details of the story.

Hmm.. while Iowa is trying to calm and pacify their opponents, I also get the idea they are trying to suggest they suck...

I have no idea why this is a national story..... any publicity is good publicity I guess....

Arkansas had players that had performed poorly in practice wear pink jerseys for punishment for the first few days of practice this season until there were complaints. The complaints didn't come from anyone saying that it was demeaning to women, but it was apparently offensive to some breast cancer victims because pink is the color that they have chosen for their cause. It does appear with the season the Razorbacks are having that the wearing of the pink jerseys even for that short of a time did have an unwanted sissifying effect though.

Remember Arkansas's pink practice jersey flap? This ain't a brand new phenomenon...

They need to lock these irate people in the locker room until they are calm and passive.

That's bullshit, I hate pink anyways