At the risk of offending female football fans who actually understand the game and the gamesmanship within it, I have a suggestion for law professor Erin Buzuvis at the University of Iowa: Shut up, get back in the kitchen and make sure my sandwich is ready by halftime.There, now THAT was demeaning to women.
Buzuvis is a visiting professor, new to Iowa this fall, and she decided to lecture the athletic department as well as her law students.
Turns out the fair professor doesn't like the pink locker room that is home to visiting football teams at Kinnick Stadium. She says the pink motif that stretches from the walls to the showers and even to the urinals is "homophobic" and "demeaning to women."
The pink room was ordered by legendary Hawkeyes coach Hayden Fry decades ago, because Fry knew of the "calming" effect that certain colors have on people. Rather than having his opponents frothing at the mouth with red-faced intensity, he preferred that they be a little more mellow. Fry knew what psychologists know: Certain colors have definite impacts on one's mood.
Red is an extreme color and stimulates a more rapid heartbeat and faster breathing. Black is the color of authority and power, which is why so many football teams try to incorporate it into their uniforms. And pink has exactly what coach Fry wanted it to have: A tranquilizing, calming effect on those surrounded by it.
So what's the problem here? If a home team wants to paint the opponent's locker room with pastel yellow and green polka dots, whose business is that? It's called a home-field advantage and teams should take advantage of it in every way they can.
And they generally do, too. That is, until self-important intellectuals come to town and stick their uninformed noses into someone else's wall paint.
"With a pink locker room, you're saying that, ‘You are a girlie man. You are weak, like a girl,'" Buzuvis told the Associated Press.
Ummm, yeah. Exactly. So what's your point?
This is the type of ignorant commentary we should expect from people who have never played a sport in their lives. Football is a violent game. And the goal in violent combat is not to nurture or promote tolerance and equality among mankind. The goal is to intimidate. To threaten. To strike fear in the opponent. To make them feel weak. Like girlie men.
Trust me, they are not exchanging recipes at the bottom of a scrimmage pile.
"It implies that girls are nondominant, therefore, lesser. And that is offensive," Buzuvis said.
Hey, Erin, newsflash: Girls ARE nondominant when it comes to football. Go ahead and count the number playing Division I ball.
And get me that sandwich when you're done.
That lady lawyer needs to get a life, seriously.
Ummm, no it doesn't. FALSTY PREMISE ALERT! FALTY PREMISE ALERT!!!
Maybe this professer needs to be put into a pink (for its calming effect) padded room!
Mark
Perfect!