Pro-rape chants at St. Mary’s University and University of British Columbia lead to national attention and backlash
Photo by Michael Courier, www.michaelcourier.com
A chant promoting non-consensual sex with underage girls has created a firestorm of controversy on two Canadian university campuses during frosh week. ‘Student leaders’ at St. Mary’s University in Halifax were the first to be videotaped as they enthusiastically led hundreds of new students in chanting phrases including, “U is for underage…N is for no consent”.
The video made its way quickly to social media and from there to the lead story—for several nights—on CTV national television news. St. Mary’s student union president finally resigned, but only after three days of media coverage and mounting outrage. He plans to run again for the post in the next election.
“It was a little vulgar”
Then, a few days later, the University of British Columbia’s student newspaper reported that Sauder School of Business students chanted the same pro-rape lyrics during a frosh week bus ride. One student later said of the chant at UBC: “It was a little vulgar.” Others see ‘rape culture’ on full display in the university incidents.
While there have been a predictable number of individuals who have dismissed the incident as a mere moment of “juvenile ignorance,” or, as former SMU student union president Jared Perry put it, something that just happened “in the heat of the moment,” many have been quick to condemn the behaviour. SMU president Colin Dodds, in an interview with CTV Atlantic, expressed his shock at the situation, even apologizing to the family of Rehtaeh Parsons (the Halifax teenager who took her own life after being sexually assaulted and viciously taunted) for the likely impact it would have on them. —Lucia Lorenzi, “It happened on my campus too”
CTV news reported on September 10, 2013, that “offensive cheers promoting underage and non-consensual sex that were sung by university students are prompting backlash, but also debate on university campuses across the country.” At the University of British Columbia, CTV reported, vandals defaced the Sauder School of Business sign with spray paint (early Monday September 9) to read “Sauder teaches rape.” Nearby, spray paint was used to write the words “F*** rape culture” across the building’s windows.
“It happened on my campus too”
Lucia Lorenzi is an interdisciplinary artist as well as a 4th-year PhD candidate in the Department of English at The University of British Columbia. Her research examines the aesthetics and politics of silence in narratives of sexual violence. Her September 6, 2013 post, “It happened on my campus too,” focuses on her initial thoughts about the SMU incident—and her eventual shock at hearing about the UBC incident:
Despite my anger at the situation in Halifax, I also felt somewhat relieved. While my article about hearing misogynist music was referenced in a GlobalBC article about SMU and rape culture on campuses, what happened at SMU wasn’t happening on my campus. I mean, if the worst thing that happened at my campus at frosh week was an off-campus nightclub blasting a song about “bitches and drinks”, rather than student representatives of a university actively cheering about underage sex and sexual assault, then it couldn’t possibly get worse, right? Right? Wrong. –Lucia Lorenzi
Lucia’s response to the chants—and the responses of students and others to their being revealed—is personal, academic, and social:
As a survivor of sexual assaults, including one that occurred on the UBC campus, I am tired of this.
As someone whose research focuses exclusively on language and its importance to cultures of sexual violence, I am tired of this.
As someone who wants a safe campus community, for my colleagues, for my mentors and supervisors, and for my own students, I am tired of this.
I am tired of living in a world where even the youth that we expect will be educated leaders of the future are engaging—and actively encouraging others to engage—in the mockery and dismissal of violence.
We speak with Lucia Lorenzi.
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RELATED | CTV News: Frosh chants about underage sex, rape reverberate coast-to-coast | St. Mary’s University: SMU student president quits over sexual assault chant | Video: Fallout from sexually explicit chant | Questions for student unions: Saint Mary’s sex chant highlights risk of student-led frosh events | University of British Columbia: Investigation begins into rape chant | ‘Grave concern’ about chant | UBC business school ends frosh-week support | No apology from UBC | Read UBC news release |
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Global News: What were they thinking?
