Your Union President speaks on RAG mag ‘sexism’

Who’s to blame for the gender imbalance at Imperial, and in science and leadership in general? “Not me”, you’re thinking. For the vast majority of you, that’s correct. But a tiny proportion of our community fails to recognise their role in creating that awful reality.

The institutional culture surrounding gender at Imperial is not an inevitable fact of life. It is created, and sustained, by people around you, right here, right now. In the same way that no one raindrop considers itself responsible for the flood, no one person considers themselves responsible for the fact that Imperial can be, on occasion, a hostile environment for women.

But sometimes, it becomes possible to pinpoint a single action or incident that perpetuates this reality. I can say with complete confidence that the actions of the RAG committee in publishing the RAG mag with offensive content, based on tired stereotypes about women and drawing upon aspects of my personal life, has directly led to women deciding against taking up leadership roles in our student community. I know this because students that have been considering a future as Union President or one of our Deputy Presidents have now seen how a tiny minority of our students act. It’s clear that some individuals think that tradition justifies bullying, or that it’s somehow acceptable not to challenge your peers about what they say or do, or to refuse to take personal responsibility.

No one raindrop considers itself responsible for the flood

These actions have led to a female student withdrawing their run for a position of leadership, for fear of being subjected to the same abuse. If this is the way a few loud voices treat a woman in leadership, via trollish stereotyping and personal attacks, it is not a surprise that other female students have been discouraged from aiming for a leadership position. And so, Imperial’s gender imbalance lives on for another year.

Being an adult is about taking responsibility for the consequences of your actions, and the individuals involved in writing that piece need to accept what they have done and the impact they have had. As students we all have a duty of responsibility and mutual respect. If these values are not upheld and boundaries are crossed, the people accountable must confront their unacceptable behaviour.

Every student is entitled to speak freely, but the RAG mag is an attack on this. Freedom of speech does not equate to freedom from consequences. This is an issue the FELIX editor tackled herself in her editorial on the 29th of January.

By condemning the article, Imperial College Union is in no way preventing RAG from raising money. As a previous RAG committee member and a huge supporter of the society I want them to be as successful as possible.

However, we want RAG week to be a success, not a scandal. It is perverse to argue that raising money can only be successful by being cruel and ‘joking’ about natural tragedies. RAG week charities support victims of ill health, war and poverty. One charity, Porridge and Rice, works to empower Kenyan women to break free from the cycle of poverty – a worthy goal, undermined by using sexist stereotypes as publicity for fundraising.

The RAG mag writers must take full responsibility for the reduced publicity they have caused for this week of fundraising. They have potentially discouraged participation, donations and sponsorship by tarnishing RAG as a group that permits and enables bullying.

We must stop this culture that accepts bullying, accepts fewer women leaders, and dresses up personal attacks as ‘tradition’ or ‘satire’. It is not acceptable for an article to be written to target an individual’s personal life, and even more so depicting someone’s murder.

I know that the majority of Imperial students have no time for bullying, tasteless personal attacks, and gendered stereotypes masked as ‘banter’. I am and will always be proud of the work I’ve done as Union President to encourage young women to study science and to take the challenge of leadership.

I would love to say that equality can solely be achieved through outreach projects and publicity, but they are only half the battle. The deeper challenge is to confront and uproot prejudices and structures that support and enable gendered attacks on women - even, or especially, when disguised as ‘banter’ or ‘tradition’. It is just cold, hard reality that the path to equality is blocked by damaging habits, ingrained prejudices, corrosive behaviours and plain old bullying and harassment.

I am grateful for the support I have received - from President Alice Gast to student groups, societies and staff, all appalled by the behaviour of these few individuals. Together, we will stand up to sexism and bullying wherever we see it.