A sign near Queen’s University has been criticized for allegedly promoting a culture of non-consent on campus. A photo of the sign, posted on the Facebook page, Overheard at Queen’s, reads “Dads: winter isn’t the only thing coming.”
Duncan Tooley, who is pictured in the photo and is a resident of the house where the sign was displayed, declined to comment. He told the Queen’s Journal the sign was meant to be a playful reference to the HBO show Game of Thrones.
“The purpose of the sign really was that we thought it was funny . . . We thought we’d get some good reactions to it,” Tooley said to the Queen’s Journal. “To the people who were offended, I want to give them my deepest and sincere apology. It’s a bad representation of who I am as a person and . . . the people I live with,” he said.
“It was not my intention at all to promote [non-consensual] sex. That’s horrible.”
Brett Aylward, who graduated from Queen’s in 2012, said it does not matter if the sign was a play on words or a television reference. “The subtext of the sign is that control over women’s bodies changes from control of fathers to the ‘men’ at the university,” Aylward said. “It suggests male control over women’s bodies.”
Fellow 2012 graduate Megan Stanley said the sign’s message is not indicative of the entire community.
“Frosh week leaders, residence dons, and other student leaders make a big effort to be inclusive and welcoming to all students at Queen’s, and I always felt very safe and welcome on campus, regardless of the actions of some students similar to this,” Stanley said.
Nicola Plummer, vice-president (operations) of the Alma Matter Society (AMS), the Queen’s students’ union, said the AMS has not yet received any complaints about the sign, but any student is open to bring forward an issue.
“As it is a complaint driven system, we require a student, community member, campus security, et cetera to file a report,” Plummer said.
Plummer said the AMS does take action to promote anti-sexual harassment messages throughout orientation week.
“Orientation leaders are brought through a highly intensive training week that includes sessions about anti-oppression and harassment,” she said. “In addition, all chants and cheers are screened by our orientation roundtable which specifically looks for sexualized messages and unfriendly rivalry amongst peers.”
Debate over the sign comes after several other incidents on Canadian campuses in which students have been criticized for advocating for non-consensual sex.
This includes orientation week chants at Saint Mary’s and UBC which used the words “N is for no consent.”
Memorial University’s engineering society also apologized Sept. 10 for distributing souvenir beer mugs at an off-campus party that featured a scantily-clad woman and contained the words, “If She’s Thirsty . . . Give her the . . . D (DAY),” a reference to the party’s theme.
