Not all dogs are chihuahuas.

I heard the other day that there is to be a meeting held between the wardens of the various residences at Rhodes University to decide the fate of the infamous Orientation Week serenades. Typically, these serenades are a way of getting the reses to meet and greet one another at the beginning of their first year. Usually, a song and dance routine (usually a very badly sung and terrible-choreographed routine) is done to break the ice, like a fat, tone-deaf polar bear. This year, however, one girl (there could have been more, but let's focus on the one in question) wrote a letter to the Dean of Students, complaining that the serenades were sexist and made her feel "objectified". In addition, she felt that it felt like initiation, and she said that she felt uncomfortable sitting in her pajamas telling "her stripper name" whilst being ogled by men. Our warden emailed us all, asking us to give our thoughts on the matter. This is but an extension of those thoughts.

Serenades: not ALL bad

I can understand that serenades can go wrong. In the heat of O week, when hook-up fever and the post-highschool freedoms of university hit us hardest, we can forget things like subtlety, sensitivity and bearable singing. Serenades can at times get a little sexually suggestive (I remember one lyric "Ladies/ you're looking good/ so good/ so finger-licking good") and raunchy (pelvic hipthrusts are the dancemove du jour).

However, in the same regard, I think that this can just as easily have been an isolated incident. Guy Butler (my residence) has always had this at-times quite cliche reputation of being "the Gentlemen's Res" (our sign has a dude with walking stick and top-hat; and just LOOK at the above picture of last year's serenade) and our lyrics have never been downright lewd or outright lecherous. Hence my terrible proverb title basically entailing the synecdochal fallacy: that we judge a whole based on a part (One society steals money? "Ban ALL the socieites!" Does that make sense?) In this case, perhaps it would be understandable to call for more moderation: make certain lyrics (i.e. those likening women to a bucket of KFC) not allowed, and tone down the Maverick's-esque dance routine.

Logic: not always dependable

However, banning it outright would be a terrible mistake. Serenades are such an important way to get to know the different reses and to meet new faces when you're just days into your stay at Rhodes. Instead, we should highlight the fact that taking part in these serenades is entirely *not compulsory* (I don't know how else I could have emphasised that more strongly).

If something bothers you, hell, downright offends you, to the point where you feel it necessary to write a letter to the DoS, don't you think you should find a way to stop it happening? Again, I reiterate: the serenades are not compulsory. You don't have to take part. So sitting there, and dancing the lewd dances, and cracking the crude jokes, and singing the dirty, lecherous lyrics, you are in fact complicit. If you lack the strength of character to stand against what you think is wrong, then perhaps you should accept lying in the bed you've made for yourself. If you sit in a barber's chair and ask for a haircut, and he just cuts and cuts and cuts and cuts, and you just sit there silently watching, what good is it complaining that you're bald when you had the power all along to speak up and put an end to it? And justifying it with "oh, but if I had not taken part it would have made it awkward for me in res" is a stupid cop-out. Again, you have the power to change the things you don't like in university. This isn't highschool; this isn't some idiotic, clique-strewn popularity contest. And besides: when did taking a stand for what you believe in ever win you friends? I could just as easily say "oh, but if I speak out against the horrifically racist jokes my friends are making, then they won't like me", but how would that improve things? At the end of the day, what good is it having a thousand friends if they're all ignoramuses whom you detest?

I'll bet my top dollar that there were far more people who enjoyed serenades than felt offended by it. We can't burn down the whole orchard just because of a few bad apples (geez, my analogies are painful to read, aren't they?). Instead, we should afford future generations of Rhodents the opportunity to decide for themselves.