'Freshers Violation': Outrage at Leeds student night's promo video
"How are you going to violate a fresher tonight?" asks video
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Your support makes all the difference.Students in Leeds have expressed their anger at a promotional video posted on Youtube on Monday by a popular student night.
In the video, a member of the “Tequila” promotional team interviews a number of students, asking “how are you going to violate a fresher tonight?”
The original video, which has since been taken down, featured students as they entered the nightclub where Tequila usually takes place. Student newspaper Leeds Student has posted an audio version of the original video on YouTube.
One male student is quoted as saying that a female fresher he is with is “gonna get raped”. Another states that he is “gonna take advantage of someone”. Later on in the video, the interviewer appears to embarrass a young woman attending the event when he asks her “how are you going to survive Violation tonight?”
Responses to the video can be seen on Tequila’s Facebook page. One user commented “I have never set foot in your club. This video does not encourage me to do so”. Another user wrote “I've had a lot of great times at Tequila and I know what to expect going in but the interviews gave the impression your employees were bullying and making fun of your customers.”
Following the initial backlash to the footage, the original video was removed from YouTube and replaced with another one, which has also since been taken down.
Yesterday, the Leeds University Union RAG society announced via Twitter that it would no longer be working with Tequila on the Safer Sex Circus, an event that is due to take place next week.
Freya Potter, a student at Leeds and coordinator of the union’s feminist society, agrees that the video crossed a line: “The fact that a club attempted to market itself to students by promoting and glorifying rape is really disturbing, but an unsurprising escalation of the kind of attitude towards women and consent that I’ve seen too often at campuses over the last few years.”
A representative from Tequila was unavailable to comment.
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