Good Times

Seal Clubbing, "sluts" and first years

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Rhodes is a dangerous jungle where the opportunity for Seal clubbing is rife. The concept of seal clubbing stems from the inhumane killing of baby seals, the definition can be found at: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=seal+clubbing. The Rat and Parrot, Union and Friars are the hunting grounds for second, third and fourth year students. The result often ends in disaster with a tarnished reputation. However, the question is this: who are to blame the hunters, or the hunted?
Writing from a female perspective, I feel that both parties should be held accountable for their actions. However, this still does not justify the idea of taking advantage of first years simply to win a game. Phillipa Reinders commented,” I felt so uncomfortable in first term, I felt like I was just a piece of meat and no one actually cared who I was.” This is an opinion shared by many first years, however, one has to ask, why have fourth years taken such an interest in first years? This leads me to believe that, once being first years, they fell prey to the seal clubbing antics and did not maintain friendships within their year, and so the cycle continues as each group of first years arrive. However, Beckett commented, “I think that when older boys take interest in us it’s like winning a trophy when you kiss them, I also think that in some cases girls are making a point by breaking away from high school.” This is a view where the hunted may be blamed for their actions as they were aware of the repercussions.
The general consensus around campus is that the ratio to boys is outrageous and is bordering 4:1; this has lead to some cut throat competition in order to be noticed; all hopes of finding your soul mate are quickly crushed and more than often, you find yourself doing things you would never normally consider. For example, digs formals, where the object is to dress promiscuously, get drunk and in most cases kiss your partner. The idea of dressing up as an ideal fantasy and playing games that have sexual connotations is both insulting and condemning towards women; even more so when they are branded “sluts”. However, I want to raise the controversial issue of why men are labelled players, yet women are sluts when they both do the same thing. Coming from an all girl’s school, I have seen firsthand that in many cases girls are more judgmental and often are the catalyst for labelling other girls “sluts.” it is hypocritical to say that the above issue is unfair when many girls contribute to slander, furthermore, even when they are promiscuous, when it doesn’t hurt anyone else, why should that wrong? We claim to live in a liberal society; however, it is issues such as these that directly contradict our beliefs.
I believe that there is so much to learn about ourselves and that we are in fact “baby seals,” however, I think that we should take more responsibility for our actions and stop shifting most blame elsewhere. We are all individual free thinking human beings, therefore, we should be aware of the risks we take and look at our own morals and consider whether we are in fact simply continuing the cycle that we so hate.

2 comments:

Meg said...

Seals Don’t Ask to Be Clubbed

by Meg from www.4burstbubbles.blogspot.com

Ok so you have a pretty decent opinion on the whole inhumane slaughtering of baby seals. However sister, it seems to me that you are just too scared or indecisive to actually stick the label of blame on those who really deserve it – the Seal Clubbing, Innocence-stealing third and fourth year males!
Of course we all know that first year girls (or at least a fat percentage of them) make a habit of drinking copious amounts of booze in o-week and doing the usual ‘union-rat-friars-get pissed-streak across the field-nap-run home’ routine. BUT you fail to address the real issue here – why do third and fourth year male students prey on first year girls in the hopes of making up for all the action that they didn’t get since the previous o-week?
As far as I know, when a seal gets clubbed it is unaware of its fate – the same goes for first year girls – why should they be blamed for getting labelled a slut when it is in fact a mistake that they napped over/slept with/kissed the older guy who by the way happened to be a complete idiot AND knew all the while the consequences of the poor girl’s actions?! Uh uh no way – that does not fly by me! You really need to get your story straight – as a first year woman yourself, you should be 110% behind any first year, before and after she is seal clubbed.

michal said...

I would like to say two things: 1. your argument seems scattered and you don’t commit to what you are apparently saying. 2. I don’t at all condone or encourage the disgusting behaviour of the third and fourth year ‘seal clubbers’. Having said this though, I have to disagree with you (although I agree with and encourage your ending sentiments) about who the blame lies with. I believe that the blame lies with the first year girls. To say that they are young and drunk is not an excuse. They are responsible for their own actions and are not forced into hooking up with those older boys (I use the term boys and not men deliberately). Citing reasons of loneliness and the high female-to-male ratio at Rhodes is no excuse for these girls attending digs formals or settling for these seal-clubbing boys. If there sense of self-worth is so low, then they need to re-evaluate themselves and learn to be proud of their independence instead of degrading themselves to anything they can get. Therefore, I believe that the first year girls are more to blame. You cannot blame the Coca Cola Company for making you fat because it sells and markets its products well – you still make the choice to drink it. To quote the saying “if you sleep with a snake you get bit”: these girls (pardon the pun) made the choice to sleep with the snake.

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