National College Of Ireland Student’s Union has today distanced itself from a post about a student-voted awards ceremony that appeared on their page.
The post has since been deleted, but included categories like King and Queen, or Couple of the Year.
So far, so harmless.
However, some of the other categories would raise an eyebrow. For example, Rack Of The Year and Rear Of The Year were included as well as Most Affectionate Person (Slut). Wow.
When approached for comment by JOE, NCI SU roundly condemned the post: “With regard to the recent post on the NCI Students’ Union Facebook page. This event was set up by one of the departments within the Students’ Union.
“It was brought to our attention, as an SU executive, today. We do not condone this event, nor do we agree with its content.
“We have removed this event from our calendar and we wholeheartedly apologise to anyone who has been offended in the process.”
This type of language is rife at many of Ireland’s third level institutions, and while many view it as harmless banter, it’s important to remember that this kind of content encourages and nurtures a misogynistic attitude and is a mindset that we could all do without.
We only have to look at what happened after the #UCD200 scandal to see just a fraction of some people’s attitudes towards female sexuality and women as a whole.
Although this was most likely intended as a light-hearted event, categorising students like this can ultimately do far more harm than good.
