Hockey culture needs a reckoning

Investigate about men’s ice hockey has constantly disclosed that the culture is saturated in sexism, misogyny, homophobia and hypermasculinity.

Further than investigate, people today have arrive ahead in remarkably publicized tales talking to ordeals of sexism, being silenced and sexual violence at the palms of hockey gamers and groups.

And these stories echo those people advised to us by elite-level hockey players who participated in our compact interview-primarily based analyze in 2021 where by we explored how contributors resisted the expectations of hypermasculinity in hockey culture.

An proven record

In June 2022, Hockey Canada was summoned to talk at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in reaction to the organization’s settlement for the alleged sexual assault of a lady by gamers at a Hockey Canada party.

There, Hockey Canada CEO Tom Renney mentioned the alleged incident committed by members of Canada’s 2017-18 U20 Men’s Earth Junior Crew was “unacceptable and incompatible with Hockey Canada’s values and expectations.”

We disagree. This is solely on manufacturer — the assault, the impulse to deal with it up and the broader community’s try to label this as an isolated incident. This is portion of hockey culture.

Alternatively than finger-pointing, the hockey neighborhood requirements to look at the means entrenched hierarchies, rewarded performances of masculinity and enforcement of a “bro code” really encourage this conduct.

The tragedy is not just that this took place, but that Hockey Canada’s first impulse was to shield their image and that not a single group member came forward.

What takes place in the dressing place stays there

One particular of our investigation members spoke about how being a good teammate indicates remaining silent:

“There’s stuff that takes place in the dressing space, certainly, chatting about women, events, what ever is the situation, that comes about in there, that type of stays in there for the most aspect. Nicely, on very good groups it stays in there. No matter if it’s who you are hooking up with, if you received despatched photos from some female, everyone sees them. So it stays in the dressing place and it’s a group builder. It’s not to embarrass men and women in entrance of the outside the house globe.”

This locker area lifestyle encourages and rewards individual performances of masculinity. And players who don’t adhere to implicit and explicit organizational expectations risk becoming ostracized.

In spite of this, anonymous participants in our examine willingly regarded the inherent sexism in hockey lifestyle and told tales of girls and women staying applied for props and “points” at staff occasions. A person participant shared, “I had a coach do entire body pictures off a 15-year-previous woman at a rookie celebration.”

This narrative touches on a lot of difficulties in hockey society: the normalization of underage drinking and partying, the objectification of girls and ladies, the deficiency of social responsibility and the complicity of coaches.

These tales are the outcome of broader hockey lifestyle, and Hockey Canada can only impact change when they scrutinize the fundamental society that normalizes and rewards this behaviour.

Instruction for new understandings in hockey culture

Hockey Canada’s CEO also mentioned the firm is interested in addressing “behavioural issues” through variations to its code of conduct and improved instruction systems. As educators, we suggest Hockey Canada:

1. Mirror on its own reaction to allegations of sexual assault. What is it training hockey gamers about sexual violence, consent and human worth, when the impulse is to pay back, privilege and safeguard players?

2. Understand that these problems are systemic, and get the job done to alter the lifestyle of hockey fairly than centring discussions on specific “bad apples.”

3. Make discussions and workshops about sexual violence, consent and healthy associations aspect of group instruction.

4. Make room for conversations about the “brand” of masculinity that is expected, promoted and rewarded in hockey culture. Our investigate manufactured it apparent that no overt discussions of masculinity experienced previously occurred, which had penalties on the mental and physical wellness of members.

5. Interrogate the institutional methods that reward individual performances of masculinity. Take into consideration how the rigid hierarchies in hockey society add to a tradition of silencing.

6. Go further than the superficial. Somewhat than applying company campaigns to re-brand name hockey, meaningfully engage in critique.

People who initiate criticism in opposition to hockey lifestyle are typically achieved with psychological and passionate rebukes that “the game is switching.” And incidents of reprehensible conduct are on a regular basis dismissed as involving a smaller amount of gamers and not indicative of a deep-rooted systemic dilemma.

We believe it is significant to constantly carry into query and interrogate how gender is understood, produced and done by all individuals who are involved in hockey to really adjust the society.