So, the other night, I am watching ESPN and sports center has a five minute piece on the pink locker room saga at the University of Iowa. For those of you who don’t know about this, quite a few years back, former coach Hayden Fry had the visitors locker room painted pink in an attempt to “take the competive edge of the opposing team”. For quite some time it went along and became somewhat of a tradition there. Interestingly enough, and as was pointed out on ESPN, their home record improved significantly AFTER the painting of the locker room. (coincidence or not?)

This year however, critics have taken the university to task for an activity they say is homophobic and actually fostered homophobia because the color pink is associated with girls and gay people. The orginal complaint maker has had her life threatened and this has mushroomed into quite a big issue on campus and in our culture.

A couple of questions; has this had the effect that the critics say over time, or is it having an effect now that it has been pointed out? What comes first, the chicken or the egg?

Are “macho” football players always going to have a certain attitude about things whether or not a locker room is painted pink? In other words, does the painting of the locker room instill certain beliefs, or were they there anyway because of parental issues/societal issues from a much earlier time?

Are we as a society making to much of this? Why wasn’t it brought up much earlier when the locker room was originally painted over?

I don’t know the anwers, I know what I think……the question is what do you think? Is this a critical socitetal issue or a bunch of tough guys messing with each others heads?