Righteous but wrong
Recent campus news and discussion has been preoccupied with the issue of tolerance; between religious groups, social classes and genders. The liberal left has, as it is wont to do from time to time, thrown up its arms over perceived prejudice against oppressed groups, squaring its righteous shoulders against light-hearted campus events such as Derwent College’s recent Chav D, as well as the weekly meetings of the Pole Exercise Society.
In the case of Chav D, there may be some mileage to these objections. It is not difficult to see how an event that invites students to crassly impersonate people considerably less privileged than they are might be seen as distasteful. Pole Exercise though, surely, is another matter entirely: a society in which both men and women are actively involved can hardly be dubbed sexist.
In fact, neither those who elect to impersonate ‘chavs’ for the purposes of ridicule nor those who work themselves into a sanctimonious frenzy over the matter deserve to call themselves ‘liberal’ or tolerant’. Surely there are bigger issues for the genuinely liberal-minded to grapple with than a high-spirited campus event, or a bunch of lithe contortionists wrapping themselves around poles in a bid to escape the gym?
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