RAG mag battle becomes sexism row
President speaks out as RAG week continues mag-less
In this week’s FELIX, the Union President has spoken out on last week’s RAG mag controversy. Contents of the magazine, although technically not banned, caused the union to strongly advise RAG to dispose of the 1600 undistributed copies after the union had seen the contents. One page in particular was said to be “beyond the acceptable bounds of satire or mockery” and that further distribution would be considered “elevated harassment”.
In her comment piece, Lucinda accuses the writers of “unacceptable behaviour”, “bullying” and “personal attacks”. Stating that she believed the piece to be sexist in outcome, if not in motivation.
However, Imperial College Union’s own feminist society have said that they do not believe the piece was sexist. In a statement to FELIX a representative said: “Though we can’t comment on other aspects of the article, the committee of ICFemSoc (which does not necessarily represent the opinions of all its members, or all feminists) does not believe the article in itself is sexist”.
Last week, the union promised RAG a reprinted magazine for free, providing the offending page was replaced with a Leadership Elections advert. On Saturday, RAG’s Facebook page was promising a new digital version of the magazine, but by Tuesday, there was still no new flyer, either printed or digital. On Wednesday, the union paid for the print of double-sided A5 cards advertising RAG’s few remaining events, rather than a reprinted magazine as promised. Despite being near the end of RAG week, volunteers distributed the new ‘magazines’ around campus.
The non-ban has ironically given the RAG mag more attention than they could’ve hoped for and the comment section under FELIX’s online news piece on the matter is full of people asking where they can get their hands on the contraband reading material. Several commenters lament what they call the union’s “attack on free speech”, with one only saddened at the fact that the mag was “really unfunny and gives satire a bad name”.
This wasn’t the only problem RAG faced this week. As Storm Imogen battered the UK on Tuesday, it was deemed too windy for their fundraising bungee jump to take place.
Despite harsh words from Imperial President, Alice Gast, on the contents of the controversial magazine, senior college management still aided with pancake making on Monday, as is tradition. Other RAG events have continued this week without a hitch: the RAG ball at Cafe de Paris on Tuesday, a 24-hour broadcast on IC Radio that raised £165, and Queen’s Tower and underground tunnel tours.
