Sexism in university on Freshers week, ‘Slut dropping’, and, ‘slut shaming’

Sexism in university on Freshers week: ‘Slut dropping’ and ‘slut shaming’

Freshers week is supposed to be a celebration of new beginnings. Students are celebrating their independence and steps into adult life. However for a lot of girls this week is full of sexism from University societies and night club events.

A recent article in the Independent has brought to attention the game of “slut dropping” but a search on any social media website shows that this is a growing hobby and a disturbing one. Slut dropping is a game in which a group of men in a car, tour the city in the early hours of the morning, find a woman that they perceive as a slut, and offer to give her a ride home. Once they find out her address they go the opposite direction as far as they can, before forcing her out of the car, taking photos of her standing on the roadside and taking off without her. This is a disturbing trend which shows more of the institutionalized sexism in university life.

Female students have to deal with a lot in their first few weeks, just like their male compatriots. However they also have the added level of social pressure brought on by the club nights. With events such as ‘CEOs and Slags’ and ‘Vicars and Tarts’ these clubs are portraying men as figures of power or humour, while the women are shown as nothing but sexual objects. These clubs create a culture that encourages sexual promiscuity. When girls live up to this ideal, they become (as one user on a popular student forum said) “the slut next door.” This dichotomy between what is expected for a woman attending university, versus the act of ‘slut-shaming’ that takes place as a consequence of the culture surrounding night life is a disturbing one, but it is more of a microcosm of our society and its hypocrisy towards female sexuality.

One foreign student from the Netherlands studying at QUB said that “It is kind of sexist, but in a sense this whole country is sexist. So it’s more sexist from my point of view than from a native NI point of view.”
This is a society wide problem, with Freshers Week being used as shorthand for the sexism found in university social life. Sexual violence is obviously a problem in student life. A 2010 study that was conducted by the National Union of Students has revealed that out of a nationwide sample of 2000 female students 14% had been seriously sexually or physically assaulted. A daunting 68% admitted to being subject to sexual harassment, and nearly a quarter have experienced unwanted sexual conduct whilst at university. These statistics are astounding when you consider that this is quite a small sample group, the numbers are truly frightening.

However as another student said “That’s the audience your nightclub is targeting, you’d be a fool not to appeal to that – which makes it logical that night clubs have those sexist posters, which in turn only worsen the objectification of women. It’s a vicious cycle.” They are obviously referring to the men who partake in the ‘slut dropping’ and the culture that surrounds it.  They make a good point though. Until society as a whole changes its views of female sexuality and women’s place, you cannot expect the clubs to reflect that. Blaming only one piece of the social structure for an institutional level of sexism would be foolish, and we must look at the grander scale of misogyny in our society and our students, so that we can learn how to change this in the future.

Images Used: rainnightclub