Class Conscious: poofs, porn, urine and strippers ...the life of a Scottish university

Andrew Denholm

Tuesday 12 March 2013

The public outrage over alleged sexist comments made to women debaters at Glasgow University has prompted a graduate to resurrect her 30-year-old fight to promote gender equality at the institution.

As we report here Adrienne Chalmers was a student in the late 1970s when the Glasgow University Union (GUU) was still a male-only preserve. With other campaigners, she protested against the rule preventing women from joining the GUU, and successfully saw the ban overturned in 1980.

The 54-year-old recounts colourful stories illustrating the attitudes of the time, including the hosting of weekly pornographic films and the hiring of strippers. She also recalls being showered with giblets and urine by male students whilst picketing the GUU buildings. The unreconstructed attitudes to women harboured by past members of the GUU is equally clear from the archive of the student newspaper. An article in the very first edition of the Glasgow University Guardian in 1973 has all the hallmarks of the most recent sexism row, where female debaters were subjected to boorish behaviour. Five female students from St Andrews wrote to the newspaper complaining about the way they were treated when they arrived to watch a debate. The group were refused service at the coffee bar, questioned about their right to be there and then "told to stand still and be quiet" by a "belligerent male". "You can imagine we felt more like social outcasts than invited guests. As visitors from another university we deserved a welcome rather than a sexist obstacle course," said one. Two years later, a letter to the Guardian protested about the prospect of woman being allowed in to the GUU. "What was once a student club with a heart, soul and personality of its own will simply become another mediocre student cafeteria," the writer said. An article from 1978 highlights "growing sexism" among students with the "recent appearance of strip shows" and male students wearing "I am a sexist and proud of it" badges. By 1982 the Society for Equal and Improved Facilities was campaigning against "blatant sexism" in the GUU describing "a weekly showing of pornographic films and Tom and Jerry cartoons, which is attended by hundreds of members". The event was called "The Freds" after the producer of the Tom and Jerry films Fred Quimby, whose surname has a connotation male students of the time no doubt found amusing. The same article recounts that, while not GUU policy to hire strippers "several members went ahead and booked one". It was not just women who were unwelcome. Also in 1982 the Guardian reported that the board of the GUU refused to affiliate with the Gay Society. The reason given by the union's then president was that "we don't want a squad of poofs in our union". Another stated he did not want gays "flaunting it" in front of him. While the attitudes are laughable today, as ever there was a darker side to the bigotry with reports of gay students being beaten up at functions and a bizarre policy of not allowing two males to sign in together to a union disco. Hearteningly, the refusal to affiliate with the Gay Society provoked a public backlash at the time and students from universities including Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Stirling cut links with Glasgow over the affair. It is to be hoped outrage over the latest allegations of chauvinism will ensure bigoted attitudes towards all those who do not meet a particular male stereotype of what is acceptable will be eradicated once and for all from this great Scottish institution.

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Class Conscious: poofs, porn, urine and strippers ...the life of a Scottish university

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