Editor’s note: the rape chant story is updated, here.
The cluelessness of it is exceeded only by its ugliness.
Yesterday, 80 student “leaders” at Saint Mary’s University led 300-to-400 newly arriving students in a chant advocating rape: “Y is for Your little sister, O is for Oh so tight, U is for Underage, N is for No Consent, G is for Grab that ass.”
The chant was caught on video and posted to Instagram, apparently by a female student who found it amusing. (I find no reason to embarrass her, so I won’t name her.)
After CBC aired the video last night, the response was overwhelmingly, understandingly and appropriately one of disgust. As of this writing, the CBC headline says the chant was about “underaged sex,” but that’s obviously missing the point that it is also about rape, and bluntly so.
The story went national, and ever since the student association, SMUSA, which organizes the “Frosh Week” events that included the chant, has been in disaster response mode.
Today, SMUSA president Jared Perry held a press conference at The Gorsebrook Lounge, the student bar at SMU. Many dozen of the student leaders, probably most of the 80 present for the chant, were present as well. It was clear they are deeply troubled by the turn of events.
Most of the reporters in the room, myself included, were flabbergasted that a blunt and crude pro-rape message could be simply accepted without reservation by both 80 student leaders and 300-to-400 participants, both men and women. Perry astounded us even more when he explained that he himself had chanted the chant, and has for each year he’s been at SMU, dating back to 2009. Presumably, there were 300-to-400 students at the Frosh Week chant each of those five years. Perry says none of those thousands of people have ever complained, although I’m told that somewhere in the hundreds of comments on the ceeb article, someone claims she complained last year, to no effect.
Moreover, said Perry, “we didn’t think of the message, we just thought of the rhyme and rhythm” of the chant. I asked how it was transmitted from one year to the next, and Perry said both orally, by people who remembered it, and in writing.
Perry says the chant was “the biggest mistake of my life,” but he won’t resign from SMUSA. Instead, he has promised a renewed focus on sexism from SMUSA. Notably, in past years, SMUSA has refused to fund “Consentfest,” a student-organized anti-rape program; Perry says “it would be a good idea” to fund it this year.
For its part, the university administration has issued a statement condemning the chant, and promising various administrative responses. But the statement calls the chant “disturbing sexually charged material,” without using the word “rape,” which is clearly—and inarguably—the message of the chant. The administration has also paid for top-page placement of the statement on any Google searches related to SMU.
So now what?
Well, hopefully this is a teachable moment. It appears the 80 student leaders are sincerely aware that the chant was inappropriate, and maybe this will lead them to reflect on the larger issues at play. And, it allows us all to engage in more meaningful conversation about sexism and rape.
So let’s talk about this. Yes, the chant is pro-rape: “N is for No Consent” can’t be any more definitively pro-rape. And, yes, the chant is part of our sexist culture. It is predatory toward “your little sister,” not your little brother, because evidently college students will shrug off rape of girls, but rape of boys is unthinkable, or at least no joking matter, in a sexist, homophobic culture.
I think there are other issues still worth discussing, including: Why is it that while SMU has a fairly multi-cultural and diverse campus, the “student leaders” are overwhelmingly white and, evidently, to a person, clueless?
Let’s keep this conversation going.
This article appears in Sep 5-11, 2013.
Morons, each and every one.
That dear friends is the face of our future….
It’s good to see insight into this. I’ve just returned to SMU after time away from school and I’m not happy at what I’m returning to. I hope we can remember a few things: This isn’t “inappropriate.” it’s hateful. This is the air rape-culture breaths. It might not “make someone want to rape” but it’s part of an environment where those who see no problem with non-consensual sex find acceptance for their belief. You can’t chant the words “N is for no consent” without sharing some responsibility.
Oh, maplegirl, that is not the face of the future. C’mon, each generation has their fair share of ignorant jerks. Hold on, I’m going to take a second and speak on behalf of all people. Ahem, ahem.
We’re not all the same. Some of us might share the same view on one thing while others might not share the same view on one thing. We might be classified into a single generation, or a race, or even a social class however that doesn’t make us a whole being. So while it may seem like the chanting idiots may one day hold the kings golden scepter, waving it carelessly while their own subjects run rampant raping woman and looting stores, it’s not probable. My own assumption here, they won’t be smart enough to hold a position of power.
The real face of our future? Minorities. And I’m far from worried.
St. Mary’s has a disproportionate number of students from Arabic countries where general societal attitudes toward women are repressive and medieval. One would hope that by attending a North American university these students would witness and be influenced by a country with a respectful and enlightened appreciation of women. The disgusting pro-rape chant shows Canadian culture at it’s worst, and also shows how fragile the gains for women are even in Western culture.
And this is why I quit early. I’m that girl who spoke up to no avail.
Here’s an artical to add to this. http://www.halifaxnewsnet.ca/News/Local/2013-09-05/article-3375740/Former-frosh-leader-voiced-concerns-about-SMU-chant-last-year/1
Lets not forget that this is just the top layer! The chant is just something that happens at very public events like a football game and is taught to hundreds of students by eighty or so leaders. What happens at parties and other non-public social events? And what happens in dorm rooms that are private? Maybe there is a bigger story to be told here.
Sounds like academics, journalists and politicians want to sweep this one under the rug.
People are actually paying to get an edumbacation there with that type of mentality?
Let me know who they are so I can toss their CV’s in the trash.
In the professional world they’d be fired with cause en masse.
They should be expelled, and immediately. That’s the only way it will sink in.
BTW: It is not an accident that the high school that Rateah Parsons attended is down the road. It’s indicative of a culturally backward region that has a lot of growing up to do.
SMU being essentially a ‘business’ school, they should give the students a lesson in how this would be handled (hopefully) in the business world: the president of SMUSA should be asked to resign and if he does not he should be removed. He failed as a leader and must go. That’s just for starters. I don’t know why this isn’t even a consideration at this point.
And Premier Dexter refers to Perry and others as ‘kids’.
Yes folks, our Premier twice use the word ‘kids’ when he spoke to reporters.
Houston, we have a problem.
Is he afraid to speak the truth or is Perry a Dipper ?
I am speechless. I am a male three times the age of most of these “kids” and I am appalled at the dangerous tone deaf stupidity of this group- and presumably much of the school. Unfreakinbelievable.
people are so sensitive
Really Sarah? Are you lumping this in with the PC world of chairperson and herstory? I would suggest that as language goes, it would be more in keeping with racial chants and nursery rhymes about people of colour and aboriginals. It’s all in good fun until you are the person who has felt the sting of he lash- verbal and otherwise. Perhaps you subscribe to the Paula Deen school of language usage.
In light of what has happened in numerous cities in the past year- including Dartmouth – where taking rape lightly by so many including those in authority lead directly to the needless deaths of young women, I would think that an institution of higher learning, which some though not all presume SMU to be, would be trying to set an example to lead young people away from these attitudes. Instead, they have thoughtlessly been promoting them. Since this obvious abomination seems to have slipped past the consciousness of not only student leaders but some of the administration, perhaps some very tough examples should be made of these people to convince people like them, and apparently you, that our society does not support the promotion of rape of anyone at any age. That is exactly what was happening here.
I don’t understand the sympathetic tone in the article about this being a teachable moment for those students. Does anyone really believe for a second that Jared Perry, or 80 student leaders, didn’t realize that the message of the chant? You have to be kidding me. If he really wanted to be accountable he would step down immediately. It’s also worth noting that he was the President last year when the student government apparently refused funding for Consentfest. “It appears the 80 student leaders are sincerely aware that the chant was inappropriate” – really? They weren’t aware beforehand? These are adults in positions of leadership.
The aftermath has been handled laughably, and it seems the only reason anyone is apologetic is because the media caught onto it.
If Dr. Colin Dodds had any balls, he would grab Jared Perry by the ear and toss him off the campus. Sensitivity training my ass. They are putting on a good show now but I doubt any one of them gives a fcuk about the real issue here.
Don’t blame the 400 idiotic lemmings, SMUSA and the university admin should be raked over the coals for this display of stupidity.
While refering to this as an act of cluelessness cheapens your coverage of the issue (as no one is clueless about the fact that rape is wrong), I’m very glad you pointed out how sickening the CBC coverage of this issue is in calling it ‘a chant about under-age sex’. People care that it’s about under-age sex about as much as they care that grammatically it makes no sense. The point is that these boys have 1) encouraged rape 2) presented SMU as a school of boys who encourage rape 3) tacitly admitted that they are rapists 4) directly threatened the safety of all women and girls present for the chant and 5) indirectly threatened the safety of all women and girls at SMU and in Halifax. This is more than just hate speech (in fact there is nothing ‘hateful’ about it in the traditional sense) ; it’s systematic discrimination bordering on assault
No one can be stupid enough to not realize that what they were chanting was morally wrong and disgusting. These are university students who have the sense to know it was wrong but didn’t care. Jared Perry is an idiot and should not be allowed to remain in his post with SMUSA. He is an embarrassment to the University and its alumni. Him, the 80 “leaders”, and the participants chanting should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.
All of these young adults should have been taught about rape and consent at least 5 years before reaching university…. not 5 years after! I don’t believe they were truly that ignorant to what the chant meant. If they were, they need to go back to junior high school!
I love how people are saying “in the business world, they’d be fired.” Riiight. The business world where the majority of boards look as monochrome and diverse as the SMUSA board, where the “glass ceiling” is still a very real thing, where a major corporation can still in this day and age have a manual for female employees that encourages them to flirt and praise their male colleagues to ensure they can climb higher, where corporate responsibility is at an all time low and where sexual discrimination and harrassment is about the same as it ever was?
“It wasn’t a big deal to me. I’m not a feminist kind of person. It didn’t affect me personally,” said second-year psychology student Amanda Fougere.
This was taken from a CBC release.
It seems that not all students are aware of its inappropriateness after all.
My daughter, Dakota, is a freshmen at SMU and is disheartened by this whole mess. She has a blog and has talked about it from a student/woman point of view. Worth a read. Here are the links to the two blogs entries:
http://www.justapeaceofme.blogspot.ca/2013/09/smu-boys-like-their-girls-young-wow.html
AND….
http://justapeaceofme.blogspot.ca/2013/09/leave-your-blankets-at-door-thats-my.html
They should be kicked out of school. These fools do not deserve to be my doctors, my lawyers, my lawmakers or my employers. Gearing up for the future by chanting rhymes about hate and violence is the first choice they’ve made as independent adults. Let them live with that choice. Dismiss them.
Brian’s right, they wouldn’t be fired. As a woman who has worked in some fairly male-dominated fields of study, my own experience is that they don’t 🙁
Entirely possible, but in an ideal world, if for no other reason than to keep up appearances from a PR/Marketing point of view, such obvious public lack of leadership should most likely result in the sacking of senior people.
Nova Scotia’s NDP government is trying their hardest to reduce the number of post-secondary educational institutions in this province. This is great timing, revealing the obvious first one to close. No need to even discuss the option of amalgamation, in my opinion. Let’s be done with that dinosaur.
This is appalling!! This is not just bad behavior or just “a mistake”, this is a belief system that seems to be gaining momentum in today’s society. Everything is becoming so sexualised and now we are promoting it in places of higher learning. It is time to send a clear message that this will not be tolerated. Learning sessions or sensitivity training is not enough. There needs to be some hard action taken and these student leaders should be sent packing; end of story. SMU officials have to bear some responsibility in this as well and need to be made accountable. SMU should seize this opportunity to take a leadership role in making these tough decisions and become a vehicle for change. In return, they may gain back some credibility they have most certainly lost. As for the rest of the students, Do you not even think about the words you are reading or coming out of your mouth? Do they not have meaning? Give some thought to things before you engage! No more puppeteering.
I was raped by a boy from SMU. He also went to Dal. He said a lot of demeaning, anti-woman jokes. He boasted about yelling things at women from the safety of his passing car. Chants and jokes don’t make men rape, but they perpetuate the culture that tells them raping a girl who’s drunk or underage isn’t rape at all, but just a funny type of sex. It’s all rape. The man who raped me even laughed as he did so, it was a joke to him. Any time I hear someone making a “harmless” sexist joke or yelling at women from their cars, I see his face and I’m brought back to that awful moment.
The police don’t seem to know what rape is either. All the man who raped me had to tell them was, “I thought she would have liked it, I’m sorry.” There you go rapists out there, that’s all you need to tell the cops to get them off your case. You don’t have a guilty mind if you had “good intentions” and are “sorry”, you won’t be charged. Just like the chanters are sorry and had good intentions.
I really hope EVERYONE will start to take this shit seriously, but I doubt they will in my lifetime.
It is disturbing that none of these “leaders” have been dismissed from their position.
I have a hard time believing the SMU student union was completely void of any recognition of “no means no”, the Rehtaeh Parsons case, the current bus shelter billboard campaign aimed at educating against sexual attacks, and the heightened social conscience surrounding bullying, underage sex and rape.
And now we hear that the SMU student president, Jared Perry, leader of the chant, “will be educating our leaders”.
You will be educating your leaders will you?
It’s this type of comment that one gains insight into the conceit that spawned such a chant in the first place.
The SMU Pres. says, “However, I accept that I and the University administration have a role to oversee and guide student leaders. We failed in that responsibility.” To that I would say, lead by example, take a stand and put your money were your mouth is. Send the message this won’t be tolerated and replace, and suspend, the Student Union President, Jared Perry (at minimum). Don’t fail your responsibility again, people are watching.
A little humility would go a long way. A first step would be tossing him out of his role as a “leader” and a suspension. I feel for the president of the university, but they need to oversee these things closer.
SMU: Frosh week is notorious for such behavior in the first place – the administration needs to do their job or suffer the wrath of public opinion, after all it is the public that are sending their kids to your institution to “learn” – they are your customers.
Show us you are disgusted by this, don’t tell.
Tim J.
Sociology at the Mount is lookin pretty good to me right now. 🙂
ST. MARY’S University? Here’s to the administration teaching good “Christian” values to your children. If you thought your precious religion was being taught to your college age kid — or even reinforced, think again!
SMU now stands for No Human Develpmont Here
OMG! Too EmOtional??? Forgot I’d been desensitized! Only a few clicks on your private browser and you can go back to see your ‘sister’ being *&^&*^*&^&%%(&^
And, oh, pardon me. My spelling. How rude. Should be ‘DevelopmEnt’…..
How has this been going on for five years and only now we’re hearing about it? Instead of teaching not to rape, we teach students, mostly girls, what signs to watch out for so they won’t get raped. And chants like this, chants that make it seem like targeting young women is totally cool, is more than just not right, it’s appalling. You stay classy SMU.
Yet another nail in the coffin of NS, it’s hit international news outlets on the heels of the Parsons case, anyone thinking of moving to this shitpile must be rethinking that idea.
?!
Who is the manager for these kids? Is there not someone in charge of smusa
Jared was taught the chant by other students before him, other presidents and other frosh leaders when he was a frosh himself. Jared “taking the hit” for what is really the institutions responsibility to teach our young adults what it is to be grown up is the massive fail here. Once Jared leaves his post an there is no more of him obviously this will not happen again… But the management of smusa and the offices at McNally must bear responsibility as well… Where was Cathy Ross the smusa general manager during all of this? Where was Dr.Dodds I can tell you that they are perfectly aware of the chants and have been in/ or around the field themselves during the turfburn events. Parents these are the Adults that are given (paid by you) the responsibility to oversee what your 18-20 ish year olds flourish into responsible educated “future leaders” We can ask Jared to step down and pat the admin on the back for the fabulous hindsight apology “kinda” … My kids will go to a higher learning institution that is managed by Managers of students Unions and presidents of university’s who take direct swift ACTION in situations like this. Shame on you SMUSA for not caring about what’s in a chant… Do you like the beat now ?
Well, Perry and the VP Student Union resigned. Proper thing.
Now, what about the SMU administration??? They either knew about this or were severely derelict in their responsibilities not to have Known. Or are they going to be cowards like former Mayor Kelly and former HRM Schoolboard Superintendent Carol Olsen.
Please do not lessen the importance of this behaviour by saying it is a “teachable” moment, it is one thing, a “punishable” moment.
“SMU Frosh Week Rape Chant – Why I’m Now Ashamed Of My Alma Mater”
http://howtoruinatoddlersday.wordpress.com…
Jmmvan had a valid point in saying that the frosh week debacle is a punishable moment. However, it is clear that the “clueless” leaders would have benefited greatly had they been taught better. It is amazing how many university students are accepted to institutions of higher learning having had very little in the way of media literacy education, etc. I maintain that making critical thinking and media literacy mandatory in this, The Information Age, is crucial. Jean Kilbourne, anyone? Critical thinking is a skill;like any other, it needs to be taught. Those who have wondered where those kids left their common sense when ever so blindly continuing this practice by engaging in this asinine behaviour, it is evident that these kids are clearly missing the ability to analyse or even identify all that was wrong about this orientation chant. Heck, even some of those commenting here ask, “why so sensitive?” Blind leading the blind, I tell ya! Time to demand that critical thinking skills come to the front and centre of The Nova Scotian curriculum!
It is a shame that people like Jared Perry even exist. Men like him need to be castrated.