Word: locker-room
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...locker-room incidents are a stark and valuable reminder that the battles that I and others waged for equality in the 1970s didn't bring an end to discrimination. They only kept the more overt forms from showing. We've learned that changing the rules doesn't necessarily alter attitudes. Stereotypical, outmoded and confining images of women, not at all suited to the reality of their actual lives, still pop up and sting...
...however, the dam seems to have burst. The immediate cause was the charge last month by Boston Herald reporter Lisa Olson that several New England Patriots exposed their genitals and made lewd remarks while she was trying to conduct a postgame interview. Since then, reports of other incidents of locker-room harassment have come to light, causing some women sportswriters to wonder if their jobs are under widespread attack...
With his stocky build, spread-collar shirts and locker-room charm, Walter Yetnikoff fit right in among the sharp-elbowed power brokers in the music business. He was tone-deaf as well, yet for 15 years the colorful and fiery Yetnikoff steered CBS Records (major labels: Columbia, Epic) to world prominence. He boosted its revenues from $485 million in 1975 to well over $2 billion last year, when it ranked second only to the Warner Music Group. In the process, Yetnikoff managed to foster some of the most profitable talent ever to reach the music industry, from Michael Jackson...
...culture. Heavy-metal masters Motley Crue invoke images of satanism and the Beastie Boys mime masturbation onstage. Rap poets like N.W.A. and the 2 Live Crew call for the fire of war against police or the brimstone of explicit, sulfurous sex. Comedians like Sam Kinison and Howard Stern bring locker-room laughs to cable TV and morning radio. On network television, sitcom moms get snickers with innuendos about oral sex. In movies, the F word has become so common, like dirty wallpaper, the industry's conservative ratings board doesn't even bother to punish the occasional use of it with...
That's the irony of bitchiness. The sloppy news editing and locker-room talk that dubbed these women "bitches" was unjustified, but that doesn't make Leona Helmsley innocent. Just as "bitch" should never be used as a character assassination, it should not be used as a character vindication...