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Students face consequences after misogynistic signs posted over Queen’s homecoming weekend.

By XFM News staff Oct 19, 2021 | 1:27 PM

Two particular signs displaying sexist comments circulated social media after Queen’s University homecoming weekend. (Suzanne Henderson/TWITTER).

Students at Queen’s University who hung misogynistic signs during homecoming weekend will face consequences through the school’s code of conduct, according to Principal Patrick Deane.

In a statement released Monday, Deane said “while this weekend’s street parties and other forms of disruptive conduct might be explained sympathetically by some as an expression of the pent-up energy of young people emerging from COVID-19 isolation, no such excuse can be made for acts of sexual harassment or violence, or sexist behaviour of any kind.”

Two particular signs displaying sexist comments circulated on social media, including one that read “Western guys wish they were Pfizer so they can get inside her.”

Deane says these signs “poisioned” the campus environment by “causing threats of sexual violence to hang over the heads of women those vulnerable to harassment and assault in our community.”

Leah Marshall, Fanshawe’s Sexual Violence Prevention Advisor, says one of the biggest challenges that survivors of sexual violence go through is “the world we live in.”

“We live in a world that’s really unkind to survivors. We live in a world that blames survivors, instead of holding perpetrators accountable.”

Deane said those who posted the signs have already been put on notice and will be facing a disciplinary process under the school’s code of conduct. This conduct does not allow the university to sanction students immediately as the disciplinary process will give those the right to defend themselves. 

However, if found guilty, those individuals could face penalties all the way to expulsion. 

But the city’s University District is no stranger to similar signs being hung from homes in the past. Deane stated that this is no longer tolerated. 

“If there was ever a time when cultural mores permitted such behaviour at Queen’s, that time has most definitely passed.”

Marshall is encouraging “people to learn more about what sexual violence is and what falls under it because as we expand the definition of sexual violence, we also allow people to seek support for all of the things that fall under that.”

The Sexual Assault Center Kingston said at a meeting on Monday that they would discuss what to do about signs and the tradition of hanging them during homecoming. 

 

 

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