You Got No Male

‘JUDGING by the picture that accompanies the story, the only people who will be happier than the female students that St Hilda’s College in Oxford is to remain women-only are prospective male students.

St Hilda’s fared badly on the sports round

If Sophie Woodley, who is shown smiling and giving a thumbs-up sign to the camera, is representative of the college as a whole, no man in his right mind would consider applying there.

However, one wonders why so many female students and fellows feel so strongly on the subject.

The Telegraph reports that one don, Dr Laura Newby, made a 10,000-mile round trip from China to put her X on a piece of paper.

And it was her vote that denied the pro-change fellows the two-thirds majority they needed to push through change to mixed status and into line with every other college in the university.

”I couldn’t believe that Dr Newby was there,” one anti-change protestor told the Telegraph. ”If we had thought about it, we would have given her a cheer.”

”If we had thought about it…” – what gratitude the good doctor must feel after cutting short her sabbatical in Beijing!

Not everyone is in favour of remaining single sex, however.

Nicola Ayton, a first-year English student, tells the Independent: ”I can see the pros in terms of representation across the university, but I don’t think segregation is the way to achieve that.

”It’s not a convent, it’s just a university. It’s not a real environment to be in. An all-women community is not the real world.”

Indeed, not. In preparation for jobs in the real world, the female students should be surrounded by lecherous men twice their age, all the top jobs should be taken by the men, the men should get higher grants than them…’

Posted: 4th, December 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink