Complaint letter forces Senseless re-branding
Two Intra Mural football teams have been forced to change their names following a complaint to the University over their insinuation
Photography- Hubert Lam
Shakthar Last Night and Shagther Senseless have had their names changed to Shakthar LN and Shakthar FC following a complaint from a University student. The complaint, which was sent to the Welfare and Equality Officer and Gender Equality Officer, only made reference to the team Shagther Senseless.
The complaint, made by a male student, began with the student stating ‘I am writing to express my unease about the name of the Inter-Mural [sic] football team (which is a poor pun of the Ukrainian Team Shakhtar Donetsk) ‘Shagther Senseless.’’
The complainant pointed to the “inherent sexism of the name in itself,” as the reasoning behind his objection, stating that it was a name that “infringes upon both University and Union policy regarding mutual respect and the stopping [of] sexual harassment. The vein of these policies are to halt unwanted conduct that has the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the complainant, my complaint and request falls well within these parameters.”
It goes on to argue that ‘The sexist joke of ‘shagging [her] senseless’ is not only derogatory and offensive to women but also to those of us who find such humour as contributing to the macho and crass ‘lad culture’ which is sadly associated with football. The connotations of ‘senseless’ border the extreme tastelessness of making light of rape and sexual violence towards women. Furthermore such a ‘lad’ culture promotes the objectification of women and sexism in general as ‘banter’ and pressures or dissuades those who are against such behaviour from taking an active role.’
‘Seeing crude sexist puns in the Courier and on it’s [sic] back page does not project the image of a welcoming and equal opportunities university but rather one where sexism is ignored at best , and tacitly promoted at the very worst.’
Welfare and Equality Officer Katy Hargreaves, who handled the initial complaint and worked to have the name changed, stated that she ‘responded immediately and got in touch with Alice [Holloway] (AU Officer) and together we contacted the university to ensure the name was changed immediately. As the union is here for its students, it’s important that we always respond to their needs and wants. The last thing the union and university want is offend their students.
‘There has never been a policy in place to stop inappropriate team names, and the names are not passed through the union therefore until now have not been flagged up if inappropriate. The university have promised to take more care with intermural [sic] team names and have promised that such names will not be used again.’
University Sports Centre Participation and Events Manager Denis Murphy, who is in charge of the running of Intra Mural football, mediated between the complainant and the two team captains, and made the decision to change the names of the two teams. He said that when the complaint was received, the decision was taken immediately to change the names.
‘I saw the complaint and we decided to change it straight away. We didn’t want to offend anyone and so it was changed. They [the managers] wanted the name to be a bit of fun, but it offended someone. They are both quite new teams and they don’t have a long history with the name, they were just a new team who wanted it to be fun.’
‘They were always happy to change it, as soon as the captains heard about it they had no stubbornness about changing the names straight away. So fair enough, it has offended people and we are happy to change it.’
Robbie Cachia, manager of Shagther Senseless said ‘to be honest we didn’t mean to offend anyone but if people find it offensive then we apologise for this and move on with a new name.’
The newly named Shakthar FC play in the Third Division on a Wednesday whilst Shakthar LN play in the Third Division on a Saturday.
The complaint comes at a time where the footballing world is still trying to ditch its tag as a sexist community; Ipswich manager Paul Jewell’s recent quotes about the decision making of a female official having recently brought the subject back into the media spotlight.
It remains to be seen how rigid the policy of naming university teams will become after this, and whether team names will be vetted more rigorously in future to prevent any further offense
or complaint.
Absolutely Outrageous
Why no mention for Shieldfield Wednesday (who played on Saturdays) in the list of classic intra mural team names? They were always my favourite opposition back in the 98-99 and 99-00 seasons.
It offends me that someone found these names offensive.
such anos
Bloody stupid I don’t see what the guys problem is???
This is stupid I don’t see what they guy’s problem is??
Some people just have nothing better to do
The only reason I play football is for the puns. It would bring a tear to my eye if my cross-cum-shot was not slotted home into a gaping goal mouth. I like nothing more than the expression on the opponents face after an elaborate build-up incorporating the whole team culminates in me drilling home a screamer.
It seems that are still stuck in the dark ages where (in this case debatable) some people don’t respect women, (not debatable…) some people are also homophobic! No the person in question isn’t gay. I’m appauled that a straight man that respects women is so rare that it seems to shock you all!
Whether or not you agree or not with the complaint people are still entitlied to have different opinions and shouldn’t be abused for it! thank god some people do think differently! If everyone thought like the above we would be living in a very narrow minded scary world.
For your reading…..http://hiddenmarks.org.uk/2010/about/hidden-marks/
RIP Common Sense.
The name includes no insulting referance towards any social, religious or racial minority and there isn’t a hint of sexism to be found. So what if it includes a sexual inuendo. The vast majority of university students are adults over the age of 18.
I’m sure everyone would love to be the person with so little problems in their life their only issue is with the name of an Intra-Mural football team.
The world is not a perfect place and will never be so. If people insist on being marytrs there are far more productive ways than forcing a football team to change it’s name.
You are entitled to your own opinion, correct. So am I, and in my opinion the person who made this complain is incredibly sad and has too much time on their hands. Trying to take the moral high ground on such a petit issue. If you have so much free time how about complaining about something that matters? Some people need to get a sense of humour. Oh, and by the way, i am female.
The pun is sexual and suggestive. I personally don’t find the name offensive (oh and by the way i’m a girl!) the additional comments by Harry Slavin display all the problems I have regarding sexism to football. Yes I like football, I also play rugby and watched the superbowl… you don’t need to be part of a ‘LAD’ culture. Which in a lot of situations I find intimidating, aggressive and offensive.
The main point of complaint made was to display an unease that could upset someone, which in my eyes is an indication of pure common descency.
Maybe they should make better use of their time… i’ve heard getting hammered at sinners and flashing your body to strangers when falling over your heels and being a ‘LAD’ is a really good use of someones time compared to engaging in intellectual conversation and reading worldly literature and not being a sexist, homophobe.
I wish to make a complaint about every comment on here that has compared football to “lad” culture, this offends me.
Whats everyone’s favourite netball team names? I’d have to go with Lawyers Netball
It is sad that one person getting offended is enough to change the team names. People have every right to be offended, but that doesn’t mean whoever is offended is always in the right
Have to be an absolute freak to be offended by that what a clown
oooh BANTER
They missed out Shakter Last Night in the 5aside wednesday league, how come we havn’t had out name changed???
And then what about other “offensive” names – Inter Yurnan, Not In Your Mums Forest etc
These names are just a joke, there’s no need to take it so seriously
I am sure he would have been offended by “dyslexia untied” too; its not wright too Laff at peep-hole who car-knot spell.
Also “senseless….->….rape”, that’s quite a leap. Sure one can be senseless from orgasmic euphoria.
TLDR. Just LIGHTEN UP! It’s uni.
We had to get our 5-a-side team changed after “Kiddiefiddler Harriers” was deemed “Inappropriate”. Tsk, honestly.
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