(Calgary) The outside of the mask was decorated with the words “guys will be guys, power, kings”. Inside it read “pain, suicidal, need love.”
Another mask read “smart, focused, money” on the outside and “angry, insecure, bi” on the inside.
The masks, created by university hockey players – some of whom played at the major junior level – were the subject of a research project presented Friday at Hockey Canada’s Beyond the Strips summit.
This two-day summit aimed to focus on elite men’s hockey, which dominates the sports culture in Canada, and the toxic masculinity that is part of it and which can also breed racism, sexism and homophobia in sport.
The masks, handed out to conference room tables for review, were intended to show the effects of toxic masculinity on men in the sport.
“These are conversations that men can’t have,” said researcher Teresa Fowler, an assistant professor at Concordia University in Edmonton.
The closed doors of the locker rooms and violence presented as robustness are among the themes which kicked off the summit, which ends on Saturday.
“The men in our study were told they had to do things that went against their constitution,” Teresa Fowler said.
“One of the players knew he would have to fight, so he couldn’t sleep, drank on the plane and did whatever it took to keep it together. »
The audience at the summit was made up of minor and professional hockey leaders. The workshops and roundtables were closed to the media.
Hockey Canada is facing pressure to change its culture and that of hockey following reports and allegations of sexual assault and hazing.
One of the less serious examples of hazing involves a rookie initiation in which a male player was forced to wear a dress in an attempt to make him feel inferior to the rest of his teammates.
For Katherine Henderson, the former director of Curling Canada who replaced Scott Smith as president and CEO of Hockey Canada, the summit was her first official event in her first week on the job.
“Our plans may require us to rethink some of the things we hold dear and consider to be true or an intrinsic part of hockey,” said Katherine Henderson in her opening remarks.
“The summit is a step to understanding a problem and starting to figure out where we need to go, who needs to be on board and, frankly, who needs to get off the bus. »
Hockey Canada hopes that this summit will be part of a series of meetings, some of which focus on racism, sexism and homophobia.