Understanding the Importance of Language in School Athletic Culture

Editor’s Note: The language in the article may be offensive or uncomfortable to some readers.

Education-based athletics programs are an extension of the academic classroom – complementing the educational experience through teachable moments, invaluable life lessons and providing participation and competition opportunities for high school and middle school students in a safe environment.

Providing a positive experience for student-athletes participating in education-based athletics requires a non-toxic athletic culture. The athletic culture within a school encompasses the shared practices, traditions and values that shape the environment of athletic activities. Athletic culture not only influences how an athletic team trains and competes but also the behaviors that the team promotes and accepts. Understanding the athletic culture in a school is crucial for appreciating the significant cultural and social impact of sports within our schools and globally.

Sexual violence is a societal problem and this violence against girls and women is primarily a learned behavior. Sexual violence exists in many domains and spaces including interscholastic athletic programs. Sexual violence includes rape, assault, battery, coercion, harassment, including verbal harassment. It is about power and control, not sex, and it is preventable.

Studies conducted by Campbell Leaper, professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Christia Spears Brown, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky, revealed some alarming outcomes. One study concluded that nine out of 10 teen girls experience sexual harassment, and a majority have received gender-based discouraging comments about their abilities in school and athletics. Many reported that the comments came from their peers. A school’s education-based interscholastic athletics program can create an athletic culture that combats rather than contributes to sexual violence.

Language is intrinsic in culture, and it is the means by which values, beliefs and customs of culture are communicated. Language is one of the most fundamental aspects of coaching. The language that is used by coaches and student-athletes is one of the most powerful influences establishing an athletic culture that can be positive or negative.

Language is powerful, yet often overlooked in terms of possibilities to impact both positively and negatively. Words have the power to both stigmatize and normalize sexual violence. Therefore, it is critical that coaches understand how the language used has tremendous effects on student-athletes. It can contribute to or help prevent sexual violence.

Coaches need to recognize sexually violent language when they hear it, and they need to know what to do to eliminate it from their team culture. Language using sexual metaphors or demeaning the female gender contributes to a sexually violent culture. Listed are examples of unacceptable language that coaches and athletic directors must prohibit:

• “Man, you just got raped out there!”

• “Don’t be a pussy!”

• “Grow some balls!”

• “We’re getting screwed out there!”

• “Man Up!”

• “Take off your skirt and get aggressive!”

• “What are you, on the rag?”

• “You’re playing like a bunch of sluts!”

• “You’re playing like a bunch of girls!”

• “You don’t deserve to be called men!”

Statements like these examples promote the idea that women/ girls are weak, and men/boys are strong, that women/girls are inferior to men/boys and that there is something less about being a woman or girl. This type of language implies that it is okay for men/boys to have power over women/girls, which may include influence and persuasion, physical dominance and confuses the boundaries of what is right and wrong.

The use of such language suggests that sexual violence is not serious and that, for example, if sexual assault happens, then it is something that the woman or girl did to bring it on. Language lays the foundation for culture and must not be used to normalize acts of sexual violence in any education-based athletic program.

Coaches should never use sexually violent language and should confront it when used by another coach or student-athlete. Some of the reasons coaches do not address sexually violent language are that they don’t know what to say when they hear it, they don’t want anyone to think badly of them, they don’t like confrontation or they don’t want to make a big deal “out of nothing” and having the mindset that “this sort of thing happens all the time.”

What you allow, you condone…to fix it, you have to face it. Coaches must be willing to stop their use of sexually violent language and must be equipped with the methodology and tools to know what to say in order to stop its use by others.

Coaches need to believe they can influence and change behaviors that do not support the mission of the athletic program, and aid in the productive development of positive life skills.

Recognizing sexually violent language and knowing what to do to eliminate it from their team’s culture requires ongoing training for coaches provided by the school’s athletic administrator and utilizing the resources available in the school. Listed are a few considerations for athletic administrators when developing a training process that empowers their coaches:

• Athletic administrators must interface and collaborate with the school’s Title IX Coordinator to establish a culture of zero tolerance of sexual and gender-based harassment. A school’s Title IX Coordinator can provide valuable training to coaches on all matters pertaining to Title IX law which includes sexual harassment.

• Provide coaches of girls teams with information, training and continuing education about how power and dependence can influence relationships and abusive behavior. The aim is to maintain girls teams that have coaches who are knowledgeable about the sport and create a team environment where student-athletes feel supported, engaged, valued, safe, and that they belong.

• Review the school’s sexual harassment policy with coaches at every preseason coaches meeting. Include the sexual harassment policy in the coaches handbook. Invite the school’s Title IX Coordinator to attend coaches meetings to speak to coaches about the policy and coaches requirements and expectations regarding sexual harassment policy and procedure.

• Require coaches to take the free NFHS Learn online courses: “Protecting Students from Abuse,” “Implicit Bias” and “Bullying, Hazing and Inappropriate Behaviors.”

• Contact the state’s athletic director’s association for access to the NIAAA’s LTC 715 course “Appropriate Professional Boundaries, Identifying, Implementing, Maintaining.” Make the course available to coaches and athletic administrators.

• Review the state’s mandatory reporting law and ensure that coaches comprehend their legal duty as it pertains to child abuse reporting laws.

• Athletic administrators should engage in professional development through the NIAAA’s leadership academy by taking the Legal Issues in Sports courses; LTC 504 (Liabilities for Sports Injuries and Risk Management), LTC 506 (Title IX and Sexual Harassment), LTC 508 (Hazing, Constitutional Law, Disabilities Law, Employment Law and Labor Law) and LTC 510 (Social Media, Event Management and Security, Transgender Participation, Pregnant and Parenting Student-Athletes and Intellectual Property).

• Identify other individuals to speak to coaches about healthy masculinity and gender identification. If the school is in a town or city that has a college or university, reach out to the college/university and identify potential speakers or other resources for support.

• Athletic administrators must make the time and effort to get in front of the school board. Educate those stakeholders as well as others about zero tolerance for inappropriate language and get the ‘buy-in’ to support those efforts.

Student-athletes expect their coaches to be competent, approachable, confident, fair and consistent motivators who show personal concern for each athlete and are supportive. Student-athletes expect coaches to value them as individuals and teach them how to effectively interact with their environment. For many student- athletes, a coach is an incredibly influential figure. A coach’s impact continues after their involvement in athletics is completed. A coach is “coach” forever. Coaches have an incredible opportunity to help their student-athletes maximize their physical, social, personal and psychological development and to help young people to become contributing members of a community free of sexual violence.

The power to provide a healthy, safe and positive athletic culture lies within the leadership of the athletic program. Athletic administrators and coaches have an inherent responsibility to ensure that the athletic culture of the school includes as its core offering an avenue of student learning that stresses safety and well-being within all participation opportunities.

Athletic administrators must provide ongoing meaningful professional development training for coaches. All professional development must include helping coaches understand how language impacts the student-athletes in their charge and affects the culture of the school as a whole. The influence of a coach not only affects the student-athlete’s athletic performance, but also the mental and emotional well-being of all students. The integrity of a positive athletic culture is imperative to the health and safety of all student-athletes and coaches who participate in a school’s education- based athletics program.

Resources:
NFHS Learning Center www.NFHSLearn.org
NIAAA www.niaaa.org
Coaching Boys Into Men www.coachescorner.org
A Call To Men www.acalltomen.org
Futures Without Violence www.futureswithoutviolence.org
Positive Coaching Alliance www.positivecoaching.org
Stop Sexual Assault In Schools www.stopsexualassaultinschools.org
Stop Educator Sexual Abuse Misconduct & Exploitation www.sesamenet.org
Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape www.pcar.org
RALIANCE www.raliance.org
U.S. Center for SafeSport www.uscenterforsafesport.org
U.S. Department of Education www.ed.gov
Article Links:
https://news.ucsc.edu/2008/05/2207.html
https://www.raliance.org/sport-prevention-center/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/RALIANCE-OverviewReport_WEB.pdf