Letter to the Editor: On “Serial Dating and the art of seduction”

Dear the Boar,

When I first read the article “Serial Dating and the art of seduction” on the Boar’s website, I laughed. I thought it was a joke. When I re-read it, however, and the comments section started filling up, it became apparent that it wasn’t, and I found myself angry and depressed in equal measure.

I’m not going to pick apart the whole article – I do, however, recommend that people read the comments section where there are some excellent and coherent responses to the travesty that is this article.

How can the author think that it is okay to encourage women to adopt a “sultry foreign accent” in order to blag a free meal, when Warwick’s international population comprises over a third of our students? In my role as Welfare Officer I see international students reeling from culture shock, alienation, isolation – and, more recently, sexual assault. It is disgusting that the author should reduce women to their ability to be “exotic”.

The sentence that almost made me throw up was this: “Just remember, no man likes a prude, so a gentle leg graze or tender arm stroke should tie him over till the next time”. You have got to be joking. In a country where only 6% of reported rapes result in a conviction, where victims of sexual assault are dismissed on the basis that they were initially intimate with their attacker, this kind of advice, even if it is intended to be “light-hearted” is downright irresponsible. Yes, as a student journalist the author has the ability to write what she thinks – but she should also recognise that she has a responsibility as well.

The Hidden Marks report showed that nationally 1 in 7 women students are assaulted at their place of study (i.e. on campus). Maybe the author should consider doing some research and focus on writing about something like that, so that her next article isn’t so utterly inane, reductive and backward.

Yours faithfully,

Izzy John