Criticism and resignations after the sexist speeches of a university student association in Amsterdam

The sexist speeches made during a party held last Sunday by the largest university association in the Netherlands (ASC / AVSV, in its Dutch acronym), has caused a wave of criticism on a national scale.

Three male students, members of the board, made misogynistic comments like this: “If I think she will go on Sunday July 24 in her prettiest dress to the NDSM pier [a cultural space in Amsterdam], then she is one…” .

The response from the room, made up only of boys, was as follows: "Bitch."

In another of the glosses it was also said that women are "cubes of semen", and one of the speakers even proposed "breaking their necks to penetrate them".

In view of the facts, the president of the group has resigned, as well as the trio responsible for these parliaments.

For its part,

What happens in university associations, in particular the hazing to which new members are subjected every year, does not usually transcend.

There is an unwritten law of silence, but this time a video of the celebration has been leaked.

In it, you can see the boys, some of them very young, chanting the harangues of their classmates from more advanced courses several times to the cry of “whores”.

The celebration took place in separate rooms, for boys and girls, although the rest of the year there are usually joint activities.

Some guests left the room at the tone of the speakers.

The journalist and feminist Milou Deelen, who was not there, criticizes that those who make these comments "think they are funny, when they are terrible," the 26-year-old says on the phone.

Adds Deelen: “These guys tease each other because, in the end, they just think it's great to be able to have sex with as many girls as possible.

Saying those things gives them a dangerous sense of power.”

Six years ago, she herself was part of Vindicat, a student association at the Dutch University of Groningen.

At one point in her studies, Ella Deelen was insulted with a demeaning song sung by her own classmates, and she responded by denouncing the misogyny of her former group.

She recorded a video for it where she claimed her sexual freedom, thus showing the double standards that she applied to her.

It was the same freedom enjoyed by the boys around her without anyone insulting them.

The association has not responded to calls from El PAÍS, whose president, Heleen Vos, resigned this Thursday.

As she has said, "there are members who are opposed to things changing, and much remains to be done."

Shortly before her departure, she had called for "the campaign of intimidation and threats now suffered by the people involved" to stop.

Profiles of the three student members of the board circulate on social networks with their pixelated faces and insulting messages.

For their part, in their letter, the 270 signatories assure that they are "fed up with this sexism."

"This is not a joke.

We have no words to describe what it means for us to be presented in such a disrespectful way at our own dinner and celebration, ”she adds the note.

Milou Deelen's personal campaign went viral six years ago, and she regrets that things remain the same.

She says that it is very difficult to imagine that these male students would want to say something like that, “after the #MeToo phenomenon, when feminism is on the political agenda, and with a recent sexual harassment scandal in the Netherlands, in the music competition The Voice [

]”.

The three students from Amsterdam who have submitted their resignations were at the end of their university cycle, and Deelen finds it “very dangerous that they could hold important and powerful jobs in the future”.

“As far as I know, they are no longer active on the board, although they are still members of the society.

They wrote their speeches and I think they should be kicked out.

If not, things will stay the same,” he asserts.

The student who leaked the images prefers to remain anonymous, and the video was published on Dumpert, a digital platform owned by Mediahuis, a private communication company with assets in Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and Luxembourg.

The Dutch media have then collected excerpts in their editions.

Another video of a show contracted by the same association has also been leaked, where two half-naked women hit the faces of some men on stage with their butts.

It was witnessed by hundreds of ASC/AVSV members.

Founded in 1851, ASC/AVSV has 2,700 active members, and Femke Halsema, mayor of the Dutch capital, has also raised her voice calling the rants "incitement to violence against women".

At the moment, she is investigating the possibility of temporarily withdrawing the association's license.

Last year, it no longer received the corresponding contribution, sent by the rectorate, to carry out its activities.

Then it was because of the violence of the hazing endured by the new applicants: there were blows, kicks and slaps, and "a change of tone" was announced that has not occurred.

The University of Amsterdam, the Free University (VU) -also in the Dutch capital- and the polytechnic (Hogeschool) have shown their rejection of what happened.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is among the potential employers of these students, has asked the association to remove the institution's logo "immediately from its website."

And the Heineken brewery, one of the sponsors of the party, has distanced itself from the sexist speeches.