Learn To Flyer

There are only three things in the world that I hate, and one of them is promotional material aimed at students.

This is an actual flyer, for a Sheffield club night, that landed on our doorstep a couple of weeks ago. 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS TUESDAY?' it asks, somewhat intrusively. 'YOU'RE GOING TO GET LAID!' Want to bet on that, flyer?

It's certainly a bold opener. And did you catch this bit?

I don't know about you, but to me the thought of losing my keys and my phone is not an attractive one. My phone is lovely and new, and my keys are useful for things like getting into my house. Advertising something with the promise of losing your belongings is just weird.

While this flyer is crass to the point of insulting, it is sadly not an anomaly. The University of Sheffield student newspaper, Forge Press, ran this story about some fun sexual-harassment on another flyer for a club night.

'POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IS DEAD' claims the flyer. No it isn't, thank fuck. That said, I have no idea what a 'ROMEO VS JULIET DEATH MATCH!!!' is, but I like the sound of it.

So far so Topman. But then yesterday, Ben found this article from The Student magazine, providing the '20 THINGS YOU MUST DO IN FRESHERS' WEEK.' Amongst the agreeable suggestions, such as going shopping and doing fancy dress, is this pile of lovely:

It's as if The Inbetweeners Movie never happened...

HAHA THEY SAID MINGERS! LIKE THEY DID 10 YEARS AGO! I'd have thought that, as a magazine, this should be subject to some sort of regulation and, I don't know, common fucking decency. But clearly I'm just a prude.

The point is, young people are misrepresented enough as it is, mainly by TV shows such as 'Skins' and 'The News.' All this sexism aimed at students serves only to embrace this stereotype, which as students, most of us are trying hard to shake off. By conforming to this horrible impression of youth culture, this material legitimises dangerous attitudes that should have been left behind decades ago. Impressively, this stuff manages to simultaneously be offensive to both men and women. Let's try to get sexism out of the mainstream attitudes into which it has been graciously accepted, rather than reinforce it in this charming way. So please, talk to students as you would talk to people. Think before you publish your despicable shit and treat us with a shred of dignity, even if you've given up yours.

Thanks for reading my anger, the title of this blog is a clever (very, very clever) play on the Foo Fighters song Learn To Fly. I'll leave you with that classic video, enjoy!