You might not think that student orientation events would be an appropriate venue for chants celebrating the rape of underage girls. But such chants have apparently been something of a tradition at not one but two Canadian schools — and possibly more? Last week, a scandal erupted at the University of British Columbia after word got out that an orientation event at its Saunder School of Business had included a chant on this particular theme, led by orientation leaders from the Commerce Undergraduate Society.
According to one woman who disgustedly live-tweeted the event, it went something like this:
Y-O-U-N-G at UBC, we like ’em young, Y is for your sister, O is for oh so tight, U is for underage, N is for no consent, G is for go to jail.
Meanwhile, in Halifax, someone made a video — and posted it to YouTube — of student orientation leaders at Saint Mary’s University chanting a nearly identical chant.
Naturally, noted, er, human rights activist Paul Elam of A Voice for Men felt compelled to weigh in on the issue. He started off by expressing his deep disgust … with having to hear anything about the issue at all:
I swear if I read one more outraged “report” — aka feverish, paranoid rant — that twists something stupid into “evidence” of a “rape culture,” I am going to just lose it.
Yes, how outrageous that a chant joking about raping underage girls at an official school orientation event could possibly be construed as contributing in any way to rape culture! So sorry that your delicate sensitivities were offended, Paul.
After some more predictable histrionics on this “hyper-hipster-hysteria” from Mr. Elam, he got to his main point: blaming feminists for the rape chants.
No, really.
I am an older guy. I find it interesting, given that I came from a more “patriarchal” generation, that something like this when I was 18 would have been unthinkable. Why? Because other men, especially older ones, would have pulled those young people aside and said, “Hey, we don’t do that around here.” That would have been that, as they say, if it had even happened in the first place.
We can thank feminists for this. Through policy and governance they have eroded positive male role models, and male authority, right out of the culture. After feminist undermining of the family, removing fathers from the lives of children and demonizing male heroes, we have a population of young people, especially young men, growing more socially feral with each new generation.
And now what do we see? Feminists running around everywhere telling men they need to tell each other, “Don’t rape. Don’t abuse women. Don’t this. Don’t that.” …
You can’t assault the identity of half the human race, marginalize and disempower them, which is exactly what feminism has done, and expect anything in return but what you are getting.
In other words: You gals asked for it.
Paul Elam, you are rape culture.
I also had an 8-track player I got not long after Star Wars came out, and my endless rotation was the complete soundtrack of Star Wars (not just the music, but the complete dialogue), plus Man of La Mancha and A Chorus LIne. I seriously haven’t thought about those in ages, but now I want to download the Man of La Mancha and belt out a few show tunes.
I would have been around 9 or 10.
A Goo Goo Dolls single track cassette, at a rest stop cuz dear gods is it a long drive from Connecticut to Florida!
My latest? EA’s FLAG, with digital download. The physical disk is sitting on display, unopened.
I bought the Star Wars double album (music only) when it came out.
Alas, after the opening music it was sooooo booooring.
Random – did any of you see the movie Paul with Simon Pegg?
There’s a scene where they’re in a bar and the music in the background is the song from the bar in Star Wars. I thought it was funny that I recognized it immediately and Mr C didn’t until I reminded him.
Styx was one of the bands that made me start liking music again at the age of 14*. I loved their well-known songs.
The first album I listened to (not bought, since I didn’t want my dad to know I listened to music) was Metallica’s “…And Justice For All.” I remember thinking about how deep the song “One” was, lol.
I grew up with Limewire and had the regrettable 13-year-old boy obsession with dad-rock and electric blues, which my dad’s collection had plenty enough of, so my first music purchased probably wasn’t very representative. I bought quite-rightly-forgotten 2000s dad-rock supergroup Circus Diablo’s self-titled album (Stone Temple Pilots/Velvet Revolver vibe without the sex appeal of the former and the sense of fun of the latter – even Billy Duffy couldn’t save them, though the beat-poetry-by-morons spoken word interlude and Adam & the Ants cover did at least make it not an entirely predictable listening experience) on CD, but I think I purchased a few downloads earlier, even before figuring out Limewire. First was either The Veronica’s “4eva” (still good fun, and I’ll stick up for it) or Wheatus’ “Teenage Dirtbag” (doubly so).
So, for all the music nerd cred I have these days, I still can’t point to being really into Sonic Youth while 12 or listening to The Cure’s weirder stuff obsessively in early high school or anything.
Oh dear, is your dad one of the no music/no art/no nothing variety of Muslim fundamentalists, Ally? 🙁 Way to diss some extraordinary cultures across continents and centuries.
This has been … cathartic.
I honestly can’t remember what our system first bought. Hell, I remember our BROTHER’S first albums better than I do ours! …it was probably some band from the 60s or something, we were into oldies then, I think…
RE: CassandraSays
There’s a local marching band festival here, and the Star Wars cantina song is a regular favorite.
You’re right about that. However, he’s also a huge hypocrite – he gets very upset when he finds out about me listening to music, shaming about how anti-Islamic it is, and then other times I catch him listening to Pink Floyd. Fortunately, these days he seems more open to the idea of me listening to music, but soon he’ll probably go back to telling me to not listen to music since controlling folks is his thing.
He also dislikes drawings of inanimate beings since orthodox Islam prohibits such drawings. He’s adamant in regards to not hanging pictures on the walls because he thinks that a house that has pictures is a house that scares away angels.
Limewire? Youngun’ I remember when Napster was legal! (*looks around innocently* and learning to torrent when it wasn’t)
We could do last music we purchased if we want to feel credible again? I really don’t buy music, but the last time I spent any money on the stuff was ordering an LP copy of early-CCM/blues guitarist Bryn Haworth’s “Sunny Side of the Street” because I’d heard good things about his early work but it seemed nearly non-existent on the Internet – enjoyable enough, lots of good session players, a bit quirky, very ’70s daggy – and a 3-cd set of the works of childrens’ psych-jazz weirdos The Stark Reality – really great ’60s weirdness throughout.
And Big Moe’s World of Purple at the same time, now I think of it.
@Argenti
Napster was legal? Did not know. I was using Limewire in its last days – I remember Frostwire was beginning to replace it.
Actually, torrent question. Thoughts on pirating a game I own but lost the key for? Cuz some twit put the VtM:B code not on the CD case and thus my CDs are functionally useless. (Also, Troika is dead and the game can’t be bought anymore except from Steam and I’m not paying them to redistribute a game that the bankrupt designers worked on for free, that seems far less ethical than pirating a game I legally bought)
Isn’t that the standard story people use to keep cracks and such around but keep it at least grey-market? Sounds about as ethical as pirating things gets.
Lowquacks — yep
I see nothing wrong with it. But I see nothing wrong with piracy in the first place.
::tries to regain credibility:: Then I got into Patti Smith and Television and I never looked back.
By the way, I have to issue a heartfelt “thank you” to you all for introducing me to Terry Pratchett. I was giggling on the bus on the way to work, and it’s all thanks to you.
Three times over in this case — that stand by (I’m serious though, one of the few PC games I’ve ever bought), that those discs are very hard to come by anymore and they will wear out eventually, and that Troika folded years ago anyways.
Hmm, I did know that Metallica sued them (didn’t know about the Dr Dre thing – as much as I respect the man’s musical work, isn’t that a tad hypocritical for a man who regularly slaps his names on beats he didn’t make?) but that looks more like it was never “legal” so much as “not shut down for being illegal yet”. I thought it might have been some proto-Spotify or something at some point or something.
Pfffff what sort of wimps does he think angels are? Scared of pictures? Fat lot of use they’d be fighting off any sort of evil creatures! Can’t imagine the archangel Michael doing a “Noo, sorry, God, I can’t fight the Devil/Dragon today, I saw a picture and I iz frightened!” He can’t even get his mythology straight. Someone should tell him angels would be more likely to stay away from abusive chucklefucks than worry about art.
Also, colour me surprised that he’s a total hypocrite in this as well as everything else. Anyone got that lint roller? I think my eyes just fell out.
cloudiah – cool, which one are you reading?
I think the basis for “pictures scare away angels” is “angels are holy, and would not want to help those who have unholiness around, e.g. pictures, or graven images if we’re going to use the scary words, which are the same as idolatry.” The “graven images” prooobably started as a way to keep Jews from conversion to competing religions but just about every Abrahamic religion reserves it as an idea to some point – Catholicism, with the religious icons and stained glass and Mary everywhere, takes the more liberal idea that as long as you’re not praying to the pictures it’s all cool, but a fair few Muslim and Protestant branches go for “no pictures at all”. On the upside, it’s given us all the cool Arabesque art styles.
So while I’m sure you were being facetious on some level, kittehserf, I think “angels won’t help a house with pictures because it shows the occupants are on The Wrong Side” is at least internally theologically consistent.
I guess the point of all of that was that expecting angels to make sense is a game for fools and particularly brave theologians.
I assume “marginalize and disempower” means “fail to act submissive and grant us the automatic respect I think we deserve because, penis.”