Published October 3, 2025
Somewhere along the way, someone in my professional world decided we shouldn’t call it a locker room. We had to call it a dressing room.
I don’t know who taught these people, but they did them no favors. As an editor friend says, they must be chased by neologisms in their dreams. Life must get increasingly hard for them, because language just keeps evolving, no matter how hard they fight it.
In my post last month about some of Oregon football coach Dan Lanning’s remarks, you’ll find photos and videos of lavish locker rooms.
There are locker rooms… And then there’s the #LSU locker room pic.twitter.com/3f7FG8QDu8
— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) July 22, 2019
They might not look like the row of lockers in my high school or have combination locks on them, or keys like in the airport in “Get Shorty,” but they’re locker rooms.
I say so. Everyone in sports says so. Merriam-Webster says so:
• a room for changing clothes and for storing clothing and equipment in lockers
especially : one for use by sports players.
Here’s what Shutterstock served up as the first option for me when I searched for “dressing room” in its photo library:
Are we really sweating this? There’s enough stinky sweat in locker rooms without adding our own unnecessarily.
The “words have to mean something!” people struggle with understanding how language works in the real world. Wait until they hear about the “ghost runner” or “invisible runner” in baseball or softball.
I had all the symptoms of heart failure trying to please everyone at work regarding all of these heavy-handed rules — and more. And that was far from the only reason. Every day I felt like I was being set up to fail, or maybe to die at my desk.
My dream is to be able to do the job I know how to do without all of these “rules” that waste everyone’s time and energy.
Sending love. Protect your peace. Conserve your energy. Goddess knows too many people will try to suck it out of you if you let them.
♥
Thank you
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Photo of makeup mirror and dressing room by New Africa via Shutterstock.
Undated photo of Chicago Cubs locker room by © Gnagel | Megapixl.com.