Jen_Lada's Blog

1. a room containing lockers, as in a gymnasium, factory, or school, for changing clothes and for the storage and safekeeping of personal belongings.

clubhouse  –noun

That is so weird. I thought for sure SOMEWHERE in the definition of either locker room and/or clubhouse it would say something along the lines of "a building or part of a building that has been granted an inalienable right to provide a safe haven for tomfoolery/sophomoric antics/juvenile behavior/disrespectful, condescending comments and/or actions that would otherwise be considered completely intolerable in other places of employment."

Somebody contact Merriam-Webster! Drop a line to Oxford! Encarta and Britannica - you ought to be ashamed! Neglecting to give locker rooms and clubhouses their due... don't you know they're the last frontier for 'men' to behave like boys? If we take that luxury away... well I shudder to think.

Give me a break. These so-called defenses of the White Sox blow-up doll behavior are laughable. You want to play with a panty-less party favor, that's your business. I really don't care and frankly I'm not offended by the item because I'm a female so you can put that sexist rebuttal back in your pocket. But when you put something controversial in a place where people from outside the organization can see it, you set yourself up for criticism and complaints. 

This is what I take issue with - the idea that such behavior is excusable because it takes place within the confines of the 'sacred' locker room. That is ridiculous. Anyone who thinks athletes/coaches should get away with less than professional charades just because they occur in their clubhouse are living in a fantasy world. If you couldn't get away with it in the boardroom, the conference room, the copy room, the factory, the library, or any other workplace environment, why in the world would it be acceptable in a MLB clubhouse?

I know it's natural to want to cling to the DeLoreanesque nature of the locker room - the youthful freedom, the buoyancy of athletic prowess - it's understandable. But incorrect. Let's stop making allowances for questionable behavior just because it takes place in the locker room. The perception of invincibility may exist but the actual definitions of the terms don't defend the position.