A gap that didn’t need filling

After following and commenting on the hockey player sexual assault trial earlier this year, which culminated last month in not-surprising acquittals for the five former Team Canada players who had been charged, I thought I could put hockey and sexual assault aside, at least for the rest of the summer.

It’s not that I thought this one trial had dealt with the problem of toxic misogyny and masculinity that permeates Canada’s national sport. The crisis is much deeper and broader than anything that can be solved by the criminal law.

If I needed a reminder of this – which I didn’t – a recent Globe and Mail article provided one.

HockeyBenders is a Canadian clothing company founded two years ago by now 25-year-old Cole Lequier, who said in an Instagram post that he built the company to fill a void:

“I felt, like, growing up, there wasn’t many hockey clothing brands that had relatable slogans and sayings for hockey players. So I saw a huge, huge gap in the market.”

HockeyBenders produces a wide variety of hockey-themed items, including t-shirts, hoodies, socks, hats, sticker and other accessories, which it sells through retail outlets as well as at events at hockey arenas and shopping centres.

Boys just wanna have fun

The Globe and Mail article explored the need for ongoing conversations about hockey culture, women and sex, and pointed to one of HockeyBenders’ product slogans as an example.

The company was marketing t-shirts and hoodies, in adults’ and children’s sizes, that said: “Barduzz, Getting Huzz,” which the Globe described as “language that degrades women and girls as sex objects.”

I’ll admit – not being up to speed with hockey slang – that I needed the Globe’s explanation to understand what this slogan meant:

“Using veiled locker-room slang, . . . loosely translated, it means “Scoring goals, getting hoes.”

This may be the most unacceptable of the slogans that appear on HockeyBenders’ products, but it’s far from the only one that is offensive and sexist.

It’s not just the products that are of concern. According to the Globe:

“HockeyBenders regularly interviews teen hockey players in rink lobbies about the game, and often about women, and posts those clips to TikTok and other online platforms. . . They are asked their preferences in girls, and “how many blondes” and “how many puck bunnies” they connect with on social media.”

Apparently, it’s all just good fun. An unsigned email provided by the company in response to an inquiry from the Globe had this to say:

“The boys [behind the company] are two hardworking young hockey entrepreneurs and make videos for people to enjoy and laugh that’s it. And like to keep everything they do positive. They like to stay in their own lane with their fans and followers!”

Too bad that what constitutes a laugh for some feels like sexual assault to others.

Women’s place is in the . . .

HockeyBenders is not the first company to build on the misogynistic hockey culture. In the early 2000s, a very popular website known as the Junior Hockey Bible, which has since been scrubbed from the internet, provided a glossary of offensive hockey terms for women and advocated team group sex, advising women hockey fans: “You have a job to do in the bedroom, concentrate your efforts on that role.”

Of course, the problem goes much deeper than HockeyBenders and the Junior Hockey Bible. As Ryan Lotsberg wrote on the Heavy Hockey Network a few months ago:

“They didn’t create the culture that exists, they’re just capitalizing on it. Companies don’t sell products that they don’t think people will buy.”

He doesn’t let HockeyBenders off the hook, though:

“This company has intentionally created pieces of clothing with slogans that encourage the idea of pursuing women for sex. It isn’t wrong to pursue women for sex as long as it is done respectfully, but nothing about these slogans implies respectful.”

I’ll admit that I don’t usually scroll through sports websites or social media, but I was impressed by what I read on the Heavy Hockey Network, which provided some very thoughtful commentary on the hockey player sexual assault trial, including a careful analysis of consent and concluding with these words:

“One thing that I want to make abundantly clear is that the fact that these men were acquitted of the charges against them does not absolve them of any wrongdoing. “Not guilty” isn’t the same as innocent.”

There’s lots of work for all of us to do to get rid of the misogyny in many professional sports.

In the meantime, we can support women’s professional sports – I’m already getting excited about the 2025/26 season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.