Visible @ X Halloween Posters

Successful campaign or scary slip-up?

Students passing through the Bloomfield Centre in the past few months will have paid witness to the new Visible @ X advertising strategy: eight foot tall pieces of cardboard plastered with posters about consent. The first round of posters, put out for homecoming weekend, took to re-imagining popular StFX cheers to champion consent, boasting slogans such as “sex is dynamite, but only if there is consent” and “Go X Go, Go Sex Go.” 

From the Visible @ X webpage, “Visible @ X means zero tolerance for sexual violence of any kind” and that “consent is not optional.” The goal behind the posters follows that philosophy - to impress the importance of consent on StFX students, and to get students talking about consent by connecting it to relevant events and popular slogans on campus. To achieve this, Visible @ X has designed a series of different posters for different holidays and events on campus. The most recent round of posters features zombies, bats, and a haunted house for Halloween; but are zombies the only scary thing about these posters?

Despite the good intentions behind the campaign, feminist students and faculty are shocked and disappointed at the choice of slogan: “too drunk to consent, or zombie?” Comparing someone who can’t consent to a fictional monster makes light of an extremely important issue, and is particularly ignorant in wake of recent events on campus. 

First year student and activist Jenny Li is one of the many students to voice concern, and states that “in their attempts to lighten the subject matter, the posters trivialized sexual violence and did little to advance the education and awareness so vital to its prevention.” Jasmine Cormier, who has spoken up about the campaign on Twitter, agrees, “trying to make light of such a serious issue that students face every day isn’t what’s needed right now... comparing someone who’s heavily intoxicated/possibly drugged to a zombie just sends a message that this problem isn’t real or meaningful.” 

Other students, Grace Tompkins among them, don’t feel comfortable being in a space where posters such as this are being displayed. “The language used in them was extremely insensitive, and seeing 20+ of them plastered on a board in the SUB made me feel uneasy,” shares Tompkins.

Perhaps a bright side to this slip-up is that it has succeeded in sparking conversation about the importance of language in talking about sexualized violence and assault, as is evident, for example, on Twitter. Li adds, as well, that “it is heartening to see any effort made, by student or staff, toward the prevention of sexualized violence.” Progress isn’t a flawless process, but what is important is that we learn from our mistakes moving forward, and ensure that they aren’t repeated. 

The Reality of Being Gay at StFX

Sexual harassment is sexual violence

Picture this... It’s fifty years ago on a small country farm,

Homophobia is ramped…it’s a thing of the time…JUST KIDDING…welcome to StFX’s homophobic culture that targets you even when you want to have a good time. 

This is an encounter from one night going out at StFX. 

Sadly, our society has developed ridiculous norms that make people using the men’s washroom feel they have to choose a specific urinal in order to avoid the assumption that they are gay. Yes, GAY, try speaking it out loud, it is something you should get used to saying. I am gay and even I feel the need to follow these absurd heterosexual norms. Tonight, I went to The Pub hoping to have a great time with my friends. I wandered off to the bathroom and knew I should choose the urinal furthest away from the other guy who was in there at the same time. I hope you’re reading this whoever you were. I hope you know what you’ve done. He turned to me and said, “I know you’re gay and want to suck my cock.” First of all, no I do not want to do this in the bathroom with someone I do not know. Secondly, I recognize you are straight, and I do not want to be with you. Please mind your own business and let me use the washroom. The fact that you need to mention this shows your insecurities are greater than mine.

Wow! I am gay and was already targeted once this evening, it surely should not happen again. Unfortunately, this was not the case. I was walking home from the pub with two of my best friends. They were both female and one was visibly upset due to unfortunate circumstances she found herself involved with earlier in the night. I had my arm around her to provide comfort. We passed a group of immature students who sarcastically muttered homophobic slurs. 

One of my friends decided to call them out for this act of cruelty. They began to laugh hysterically as if being homophobic was a joke. 

Photo: mystfx.ca/visible-at-x

Let me tell you, it is not a joke! You are attacking someone for who they are. You are making fun of and belittling someone’s identity.

I love StFX and feel I belong here. Many faculty, staff, and students do a lot of hard work to ensure students like myself are treated as equals; it does not go unnoticed. Before this night, I had never been a direct victim of homophobic gestures. I almost tricked myself into believing this was something that did not exist on our campus. What I experienced taught me that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done before people recognize that love is love. 

If you have taken the time to read this article and are homophobic, please know that your actions hurt others and are never forgotten. If you have taken the time to read this article and are one of the people who thought it was funny to insult me, I want you to know that your words hurt, they left me feeling sad and angry.

I hope you will think twice before you consider saying something homophobic again in the future.