Locker rooms are terrible places. I never liked them.

Most of my friends have usually been women, and I remember, talking with them about how I loved playing hockey, but I hated being a part of locker rooms.

Especially in middle school, it was always hard to be feeling out of place, not feeling like I'm connecting with all these boys, who were talking about girls in very objectifying ways.

I didn't like going to practice, I didn't want to do anything extra. I just wanted to show up, play the game and leave.

I started getting dressed before going to the game, so that in the locker room, I would just set my bag down, put on my helmet, gloves and skates, and that was it. I was minimizing the amount of time I spent in the locker room because I didn't like it, and that hasn't changed.

Locker rooms as an adult, are still fucking terrible, to the point where that was one of the motivating reasons behind why I stopped playing in a league.

I played in a league that was technically co-ed, but there were only two or three girls in our league. One time, our team captain was trying to be like, "Hey, when we're out there, we should tell her that one of our friends is into her."

And I remember saying, "Don't do that. She's out here playing hockey. She's not out here to be fucking harassed by you."

I told therapist once that, "Locker rooms often have a pack mentality – all it takes is one person to start talking in a certain macho way, or to complain about women. Everyone else just leans into that, whether or not they agree."

Once, everyone was complaining about their wives in the locker room, and I was like, "Why are ya'll married then? If all you do is complain, then what is the reasoning for this?"

Because that's part of that culture -- you just sit there and complain about your families.

[As told to @Ragi Gupta — continued]