Women in the locker room? Not if Don Cherry’s in charge
Hockey analyst Don Cherry got himself into some hot water recently when he went on the air to interrupt a playoff update to make his claim known that women do not belong in the men’s locker rooms.
While this outburst may at first seem random and out of place, Cherry brought it up because of the media scrutiny surrounding Duncan Keith and his curt responses to a female reporter. I suppose Cherry’s line of thinking was that if she was never allowed to be there then Keith wouldn’t have gotten into trouble.
Cherry became quite adamant when his cohost Ron MacLean began to disagree with him citing the rules of equal opportunity. Cherry then continued his rant despite MacLean’s protests, getting very riled up at the fact that female reporters are often seen in the locker rooms after games.
“I don’t believe — and I really believe this — women should be in the male dressing room.” Cherry said, “I don’t feel women are equal, I feel like they’re above us.”
Cherry will have some explaining to do to some of his female coworkers who report alongside him, and to the fans as well. As if he will be in any real trouble, stay tuned for more news.
As a writer I certainly believe that everyone, no matter their gender, should be given equal access to the players. It would be extremely difficult for sports writers everywhere if women were not allowed in the locker rooms simply because that would provide another place for players to be “off limits” to women, but men would still be able to reach them. To do that would be unfair and really hurt the careers of the many great women writers across the country.
As for Cherry’s point that he doesn’t like the idea of women walking around where men are showering; his point does make some sense but that’s a privacy issue for male and female reporters to follow. Cherry claims that women should not be asking players questions when they are showering, my question would be that really no reporter, regardless of gender, really should be doing that. After a game any player would not want to be bombarded with questions seconds after stepping out of the shower, whether it is a woman or a man asking the questions makes no difference.
To sum it all up, men and women should absolutely get equal access to the players so as to carry out their jobs as best they can, but I think any reporter, regardless of gender, can follow the general rules of common courtesy and allow the players some time to prepare themselves for an interview.
