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AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED in Trinity College’s Ball Guide has been sharply criticised after it appeared to outline the raping of a student.
The anonymous piece documents two men dressing up as paramedics and raping a female student placed in their care.
Trinity College Miscellany Magazine apologised for publishing the article, saying it was an “editorial oversight”. This article was intended to be humorous and, according to Miscellany, “clearly untrue”.
Copies have been recalled from the TCD campus, and the online edition has been removed.
In a Facebook post, Miscellany pointed out that the Ball Guide is “not officially linked with MCD, and Trinity Ents have no official association or oversight of the publication”.
They encouraged anyone affected by issues raised to contact Ian Mooney (TCDSU Welfare) at 086 159 5178 or the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre at 1800 77 88 88.
Several people have complained about the inclusion of the piece, saying it normalises rape.
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Not even kind of funny.
Anonymous articles in a college mag. What could go wrong?
this harms men just as much…feeding into this supposed “rape culture” and that men find this acceptable.
Well…someone found it acceptable enough to write it and print it =/
Yes and paints Trinity students as immature idiots. It does no one any favours its like something written by a fantasist 16 year old!
they did and they shouldnt be allowed to be in that position again. but thats not a reason to okay with tarring an entire gender with this “rape culture” misandry Joanna. =/ what will come of this is a right and a wrong…..people will rightly be angry that a joke rape of a woman was written about, people will wrongly not care that men are considered to all be rapists.
One way to advertise this sh…ty mag?
It appears that sometimes education does not lead to intelligence.
Meh. It’s not like the go to the real Trinity anyways. (Cambridge).
Had to search urban dictionary for Eskimo brothers, I stand corrected, poor taste indeed.
A horrible ball gag.
There is no such thing as a humorous rape story.
Louis CK does it well.
I don’t know about their being no funny rape jokes. After Courtney Love claimed ‘The Muppets raped the memory of Kurt Cobain’ there were plenty doing the rounds about Muppet rape.
Actually Nevermind, Muppet rape is never funny.
No shortage of prison rape jokes on TV!
All of this faux outrage detracts from actual victims of rape. They got into the ball then got an STI. They could have rode each other for all we know but no, let’s all cry rape, about a fictional story, where rape isn’t even insinuated.
Some people only exist to be offended.
I assume there is more of the story left out?
Where is the ‘rape’ in that story? I’m not trolling here but just wondering.
@Robbie Cummins. You make a valid point, Robbie.
Theres a few hints ‘Eskimo brothers’, ‘damsel in distress’ ‘inebriated’.
Hmm..I’m not convinced.
This seems to be a case of ‘let us all get outraged over something’.
It never says the girl in question was inebriated. Nor that she did anything against her will. People are filling in big blanks and getting offended by what they dream up.
I think that’s all she wrote, Fozz! It’s a distasteful story, especially the “eskimo brothers” theme, but it’s not very convincing to say that it’s about rape.
Jesus guys, it doesn’t take much cop on to figure out that the story is about both men (“eskimo brothers …sharing the same igloo” – yes, I think I had to spell it out for you) raping the “damsel”. (damsel is a word usually used with the subtext “in distress”). “WE had the STI to prove it”.
So, do you still think the story wasn’t about rape?
Daddy can’t buy you cop on from Trinity.
@ Michele Tobin, ‘damsel in distress’ ‘inebriated’. If you are going to quote something the basic rule is that you have to quote directly from the article and not make things up yourself. The words you should have quoted were “inebriates” i.e drunkards and “damsel” , you can leave out the “in distress” bit because that is nowhere in the article.
What surprises me and says a lot about this article is the amount of people agreeing with you by a factor of 2:1 . Leads me to believe that most people couldn’t be bothered reading the piece but instead just joined the howling mob.
Yeh, I was wondering if they’d left out a page or something.
They’re clearly pleased they had help to sneak into the ball, but if you look up ‘eskimo brother’ (like I had to do) you could – could – draw the conclusion that they’d ended up taking advantage of the young girl who, you could – could – assume was already inebriated despite not having been to the ball yet … In which case why the hell were they bringing her INTO the ball?
So, it’s a bit of a stretch but, sure if someone manages to make the inference that she was ‘taken advantage of’ against her will, well then the horse has already left and there’s no point trying to shut the door at that point.
Hey! I’m the only Robbie cummins here!
Nothing funny about rape boys and girls. Everyone involved in the publication of that article should be removed from any future publications.
Man, this is gross.
Grim!
Racist against Eskimos….
The term Eskimo is considered derogatory in itself. ‘First Nation’ or ‘Inuit’ would be preferred if you don’t know a persons tribal background.
Unless you are from the Eskimo tribe, where it is perfectly acceptable.
Sorry but how exactly is that a story about rape? If you see it as a humorous rape story its your own sick mind filling in the blanks. Seriously the cr@p that passes for news in here sometimes…
Guru – look up the definition of “Eskimo brothers” and that will fill in the gaps for you.
Eskimo brothers – two guys that have slept with the same girl.
Sorry Rebecca but to be fair “Eskimo brothers” as defined by the TV show ‘The League’ has nothing to do with rape.
Yes I get they slept with her. That bit is clear from the STI comment. But where does it say they raped her?
She was so inebriated that she needed an ambulance and they had sex with her. She can’t possibly consent, so it is rape.
No where does it say the girl was inebriated.
The assumption of the girl being too drunk to consent is grounded in the lads’ description of walking past inebriated people.
Maybe she sliced her foot open walking around barefoot which is why security handed her to the ‘paramedics’ and maybe she was soberly mad for a threesome with two paramedics.
These are all assumptions made by the reader so to start apologising for what people might infer is ridiculous.
@Rebecca Ni Smurchu. I don’t like the concept of “eskimo brothers”, either, and I would not support such a mentality, but if you look up the Urban Dictionary there is no suggestion that “eskimo brothers” are people who specifically decide to engage in rape. If I read the above story for the first time, without the prurient media interpreting it in advance for me, I would view the story as juvenile and distasteful, but I would not read into it a story which advocated, described or insinuated actual rape.
The merchants of victimhood have to stop taking the worst possible interpretation of everything in society.
Exactly. YOU are the one assuming she was inebriated and they then took her and had sex with her. You could just as easily assume that they left her off with her mates, she sobered up and then went after them for sex. Alternatively you could assume that none of it ever happened and it was just some bulls**t story to fill space in a shi*ty college magazine! If you’re looking to be outraged you’ll always assume the worst and it’s a scourge on modern society.
If you can’t see the implication inherent in two paramedics at the Trinity Ball being handed a ‘damsel’ (ie. one in distress) by Security, you’re really not looking very hard. It is unequivocally a joke mired in rape culture, where two chancers take advantage of a woman so inebriated that she needs medical attention, as a punchline to funny fantasy. It’s disgraceful.
The reaction to this and subsequent apology is evidence that the rape culture narrative is nonsense.
@tordelback, you obviously didn’t look very hard to find the meaning of “damsel” “a young woman who is not married” http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/damsel Says nothing about distress.
Have you heard of ‘context’, Brian? It’s a much better guide to the intended meaning of words than a dictionary.
Tordelback, your attempt to use context is a piss poor effort to try to cover up your endevour to add legs to the story. Not only did you not know what a damsel was you also went on to say she ” so inebriated that she needs medical attention” even though there was no where in the story that suggested this. It is all made up in your head, not in context but in your fantasy thinking. I’d say given a few more days and you could probably make a feature film out of your magical thoughts.
It can’t be that poor Brian, given that it perfectly matched the interpretation of almost everyone here.
If she’s inebriated why are they bringing her into the Ball? If she’s too drunk to stand up they’d have sent her home. no?
Since it’s all hypothetical anyway and no harm was actually done, we might as well at least read what was written if we’re going to do some proper literary criticism…
Jayzus wept, Security at a student ball handed a girl over to the care of two ‘Paramedics’. What other plausible interpretation can there possibly be in the context of that story but that she was dangerously wasted? Does playing devil’s advocate in the face of the bleeding obvious make people feel like they’re some brilliant freethinker? All it says to me is that they have the reading comprehension level of a chimp.
Good old Irish conformity culture at work there. I did read it the other way at first, it’s actually a good example of how there’s an “obvious” way to read something when the headline of the story tells you what it’s “about” – it makes it hard to read it any other way, but when you actually look at what it says it’s not nearly as obvious.
In any case, why did security have two medics bring a girl into the Trinity Ball, rather than somewhere else, if she is dangerously drunk? Did they think that drinking a bit more would make her feel better?
I’m totally confused here. I expected the story to be some tiny bit explicit or suggesting God knows what but I can’t for the life of me find anything in this story that implies rape in any context other than in the most bizarre and perverted PC minds.
2 lads pose as paramedics and breach security. In the process security ask them to take charge of ” a damsel” which is a young unmarried woman. Then then go through the gates into the front square. Now here is the thing. If these two guys raped her between the front gates and the square then someone of the hundreds of people there in that short distance MUST have seen it. Maybe I have the wrong gateway but the article clearly states that they went from the front gates which I presume to be the main entrance into the square so I very much doubt that no one would have seen anything.
Sure the article implies that both men had sex with her, both caught an STI however it doesn’t mention when they caught it. Was it that night, another night, with both at different times or together? Most importantly of all there is no mention of her being drunk, no force was applied in fact if this was evidence in court the DPP would get a bollicking for bringing it up! It seems that some people like to be out raged at the slightest little thing and that seems to me to be a problem that they should deal with.
You must find all forms of art that don’t explicitly spell out everything for you very confusing.
You must find looking for offence in the tiniest of things even when you have to stretch out on to the furthest limb very tiring.
You must have sent your English teacher demented.
The pathetic way that the use out of the ordinary words says it all.
They should be apologising for how shit the lineup is.
Someones sick fantasy and the ones who let it go through to publishing are sick, was it to promote the rag?
I like how the journal reports on the angered reaction………of its own journalists. Top research there!
Many these days find that being gross is funny and if it became popular then anything is ok to do?
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