The Front of a brick building can be seen with the words Lugger’s Field House Printed in bold blue letters
Have you ever walked into a community or space and instantly realize what gender it’s for? Well, the topic of creating inclusive communities and spaces crosses many diaspora of the social issues that society experiences today. Martin Luther King once said, “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” This quote can be broadened to include many social issues, including the topic of this post, the need for inclusive communities and places to go beyond the “individualistic concerns,” they’re meant for. This topic will be seen through a specific place on Hope College’s campus, Luggers Field House. This space will be analyzed through the five senses, the general purpose of the space, how this space appeals to one gender or the other, gender assumptions, and finally, how this space appeals to different embodiment’s.
Luggers Field House is located equidistant from all outdoor athletic fields. As one approaches the entrance, not the most holiest music can be heard. The music that can be heard is much more pump up music for a war like activity, which is a stigma commonly associated with men. When one enters one sees pictures of notable Hope athletic men on the walls. The training room is to the left as one walks down the hall towards the locker room. There is only one community bathroom present within the hallway. As one gets closer to the locker room, the smell of outdoors, sweat, and old cleats is in the air. Yep, you guessed it! It’s the home of Hope College Men’s Football.
Walking through the locker room reveals athletic equipment. As one walks through this space towards the shower, to the left, a few things can be noticed. The lockers are at a height of about six feet, and may be hard to reach for someone who is disabled. The space is not only tight between lockers, but also when people occupy the space.
A locker room aisle is shown with mirrors to the left and right. Lacrosse jerseys hang from equipment racks. The equipment is above the lockers strewn about.
The shower area has a total of one support bar and shower extension for people with disabilities. The full body dryers are at a height of about seven feet, which can be challenging to reach for someone with a disability. Unfortunately, though the shower/bathroom is very spacious, there exists no place for a person with disabilities to rest or sit, even where the shower with the support bar is. As one walks towards the restroom area, adjacent to the shower area, there exists an ample ratio between stalls and urinals. It also has an ample amount of support bars. While walking around the rest of the building, one notices that there is one community bathroom (the rest are men). So who is this space intended for? Yep, you guessed it! It’s the home of the Hope College Men’s Football and Lacrosse Team’s. Lugers is meant to be a functional community with all the needs to help athletes perform without distractions. It is meant to be relaxing, a place to wash-up, tend to injuries, recover, and get mentally ready for practices and games.
If one was ignorant to American football, one would walk into this space and automatically consider this space a men’s space because of the hundred of men who occupy it. If one knew the history of football then, to them, this space would be assumed to be a man’s space due to preconceived notions of the sport. The word “football,” just like “basketball,” is always assumed to be a man’s sport in society. A notable author that would agree with this argument would be De Beauvoir, in which she stated, “And you think the contrary because you are a man, for it is understood that the fact of being a man is no peculiarity (De Beauvoir, xxi).” If this space were occupied by “women’s” football, it would need the sign of “women’s,” before the two terms, to be recognized as a women’s athletic sport area. If there was no sign, it would be assumed a men’s space. With a closer analyzation of the people that occupy the space, one can recognize four things that become obvious in terms of the issue of gender. Whether intended or not, all head staff are men including the head training staff. The only women present in the building occupy most of the training area. The all male staff doesn’t open up the opportunity for the minority in this case, women, to feel welcome because everyone in power in Luggers is a man. The majority women’s training staff would imply, to one unknown to the working of the program, that women belong in this area, taking care of the men, instead of participating in the majority male sport. Another reason this may be the case is said by Biologist Debra Soh, in an interview she did on national public radio, “The levels of testosterone around birth is actually the determining factor in terms of what children will be interested in and what they will gravitate towards in terms of their interests and behaviors (Soh, National Public Radio).” The space is also unwelcoming because having majority male bathrooms is uninviting to anyone who is female or, maybe even, people who are transsexual, gay, or bisexual. It can also be seen that none of the males are noticeably transgender, gay, or bisexual. The absence of obvious transsexual, gay, or bisexual people creates an environment that assumes heterosexuality. Thus, this space appeals, whether obvious or implied, to heterosexual men specifically.
While trying to make an attempt at viewing this space from the perspective of a disabled person, a few restrictions can be revealed that assume non-disabled men occupy the space. Though this is true, there is an attempt to appeal to those with disabilities. The inclusive things that can be found around the locker room, shower area, and bathroom are the shower support bars and stall support bars. These help assist in allowing some people with disabilities to do basic life activities. Though these helpful amenities are present, it lacks a wholesome consideration of people with disabilities. Some examples would be the fact that the full body drys, mentioned earlier, are seven feet off the ground, making it hard to press the button to turn them on without assistance. Also, mentioned before, the shower area lacks benches for disabled people to sit down and take a shower, at least or sit down and dry off from the extremely tall air dryers. These examples are only few of the one’s may not be noticed by one pair of eyes. Though there is effort, it is only partial effort, thus making the locker non inclusive to people with disabilities.
In areas so many people populate on campus, one would not recognize how non inclusive a space is unless that one is the person being excluded, whether implicitly or explicitly. Luggers, location of the the locker room of the Hope Men’s Football and Lacrosse teams, was analyzed to understand how non-inclusive it is for people of different genders and embodiment’s. This is important because this doesn’t allow for the minority, who are different than the majority, to enjoy everything life has to offer. Non inclusive spaces put up barriers, physical or implied, that the majority may never notice unless seeing through the eyes of the minority.
Discussion ?’s:
What implication would having more female staff have on gender neutrality?
Why do you think football is assumed to be a male sport?
Works Cited:
Ni, Preston. “12 Empowering and Uplifting Quotes on Diversity & Inclusion.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 20 Jan. 2014, http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/communication-success/201401/12-empowering-and-uplifting-quotes-diversity-inclusion.
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“Introduction.” Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. Vintage, 2010.
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