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Rohan Banerjee

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Helena Horton and The Liberal Orthodoxy

Posted: 23/02/2013 15:08

I've refrained from publishing this in my own student newspaper, on the off chance that it might offend someone. I've posted it on here however, because I really don't care.

In the latest spate of leftist madness at The University of York, Helena Horton, a first year Philosophy undergraduate, has called on students to request "offensive publications" no longer be sold in the union's campus shop.

The campaign was born out of outrage at The Sun's recent coverage of Reeva Steenkamp's death, wherein the late super model was pictured glossily in her bikini.

The indignation has subsequently snowballed, with Horton also lambasting stocks of Zoo, Nuts and other laddish paraphernalia. And she has since deemed herself the moral arbiter of campus media.

But in doing so, this riled up fresher, is actually as far away from her perceived liberal roots as I am from winning America's Next Top Model.

The very idea of banning of something just because it doesn't fit in with your way of thinking is incredibly authoritarian, while Horton's own flagrant hypocrisy is a staunch case for minority rule - less than 50 students attended her principle debate.

If this campaign does make referendum, which with the backing of YUSU officer Bob Hughes, it just might; I do wonder where York will draw the line. Will vegetarians be able to call for meat stocks to be removed on account that they don't eat meat? Or can I try to disband the university cricket team because they didn't select me?

Helena Horton's pious project is not a defence of moral integrity, or even a commitment to quality journalism, but rather the blusters of another easily exasperated student with far too much time on their hands.

Sadly, these acts of unwarranted self importance are not just typical of York, but generally in a number of British Universities, plagued by a fascinatingly misguided status quo - that is to say, being "right" is wrong.

Certainly, just as it is the agenda of traditional religious seminaries to produce devout Christians and Jews, it seems that the modern university has its own desired archetype - left wing, secularist disciples, whose convictions have been shaped in no small part, by ideologically charged syllabi and ill-advised campus zeitgeists that say everything is offensive.

Moreover, while Horton's hysteria is not necessarily unexpected, it ignores the numerous students who don't buy into the liberal orthodoxy, but just aren't as vocal about it.

There are left-wing students at York, just as there are at any university, but the number is not so great to justify the myopias of campus politics or indeed the curriculum.

Two weeks into my first year and tasked with writing a paper comparing, but notably not contrasting, the aspects of conservatism and fascism, I began to wonder if my voting Tory six months previously might hinder my chances of a decent mark. One experimental essay and a 2.2 later, I had my answer.

But the charge that all students are raving radicals, bent on correcting the wrongs of Western oppression, is fundamentally flawed, evidenced not least by the number of similar students to myself, who spend the majority of their course arguing against something they might actually agree with.

And that's exactly the problem. Unlike Horton and her band of activists, we keep quiet.

In 2013, The University of York has its fair share of Tory tykes, the undecided and unaffiliated who clearly prove that the entire student body is not left-wing, yet Horton's campaign, despite its modesty in numbers, will continue to be entertained unless those who aren't offended by these publications can bring themselves to speak up.

So, epiphany had, let me get the ball rolling. I've always been perplexed by this "objectification" argument when talking about page 3 or other such media, on the grounds that these women actually choose to pose for them. Furthermore, none of the models have in fact come out and said that they feel objectified, so where does this charge come from? Is it possible to feel objectified on behalf of someone else?

I don't read The Sun and I'm pretty sure Horton doesn't either; but I exercise my right not to buy it on a daily basis, which in itself should be indicative enough of my feelings towards it. It's not my place to judge others for their unforgivably bad decisions.

I'm not asking for a paradigm shift, a sudden right wing overture or for York and the other sixties universities to stop teaching Marx. I'm asking for a fairer representation of the student populous politically. For this to happen, curriculums must be revised, freedom of choice must be upheld and the student right must overcome its hitherto inaction in order to match the opposition's ambition.

I suppose my being against Horton's referendum might sound a tad hypocritical after all that, but as Scott Lishak (the campaign's online administrator) was quoted in a campus newspaper as saying, "It shouldn't even need a referendum. It's not policy. It's common sense." I have to say I agree.

 

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06:56 PM on 02/27/2013
I don't need to reiterate the ridiculousness of taking to a site like this to put down one of your fellow students, I can see it's been done below. I would, however, like to offer the perspective of a student at another university.

1. Much of your piece rests on the assumption that what this campaign wants to do is 'ban' the Sun. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that students can still buy it elsewhere if they want. The point of campaigning to get rid of publications like the Sun from your campus shop is to have your union represent its students by expressing disapproval towards it. Of course the Sun is allowed to publish revealing photos of Steenkamp - doesn't mean it's not utterly distasteful, does it?

2. She's clearly not deeming herself moral arbiter. Whilst I don't go to York, your article itself tells me she's going through a process of amassing support which, if it reflects the existing support for the 'No More Page Three' petition in Britain is clearly a democratic one of pushing a personal interest. Your argument against this seems reducible to: 'stop her from campaigning against something just because it offends her, because it offends me'. Why is her 'minority' interest less important than yours? Seems like your own brand of "unwarranted self interest" to me.
06:56 PM on 02/27/2013
3. You repeatedly whine that your viewpoint (which from the tone of your article I'm guessing is neo-liberal/libertarian/neo-con-in-denial) is one which is merely not as vocal as Horton's. If your laissez-faire perspective is so widely held, why don't you muster up some support and do something about it instead of launching vitriolic personal attacks behind your keyboard.

4. Objectification is not something that is had in a one-on-one experience between you and the newspaper. If there is a paper spewing distasteful material, that doesn't just affect me - it changes views in society around me too: in the case of the Sun increasing, the objectification of women as sex objects. Why should I, or any individual, be forced to live in a society where people hold these backwards views? Therefore why should I allow a union, that's supposed to represent me, to sell a newspaper that contributes to this?

5. Lastly, I won't comment on your bizarre views about your uni's course. Given that I don't go to York I have to concede the minute possibility that its politics department is as ideologically oppressive and biased as you say, and that your arrogant, obfuscatingly written tirade (as if you know how to design a curriculum better than one of the world's most respected educational institutions?) is in some way justified.
07:54 PM on 02/27/2013
As for 5, I'm sure you wont be suprised to hear that the politics department isn't quite as Rohan describes it. I suspect there may be reasons for his mediocre grades that go deeper than his politics.
07:30 PM on 02/26/2013
This really is insufferable nonsense, Rohan. You can't simultaneously levy charges of left-wingedness and totalitarian leanings at the same person. It just doesn't make sense. Banning The Sun is not a left-wing idea, which ought to be as plain as day. Please try not to use 'left-wing' as a synonym for 'that which I don't personally believe in'.
11:46 AM on 02/26/2013
Two things.
Being offended by The Sun's objectification of women (as 83k+ people are according the signatures on the No More Page Three campaign) is "pious", and wanting to stop YUSU profiting from such fabled objectification has a "band of activists" with "too much time on their hands" and is simply another spout of "leftist madness". I think you're more ramped up about this than the "blustered" people who support the motion, Rohan.

I also think taking to a national press to diss a fellow student is ridiculous. Props on the portfolio, but did it really take a public attack on someone who is simply suggesting a vote on a student matter- to which you're more than welcome to vote 'no' in- to air your feelings about Helena in? Surely a pint with your mates in a pub would have been more appropriate? Shame on the editor who commissioned an attack on another student.
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Rohan Banerjee
03:30 PM on 02/25/2013
Oh I thought about publishing it in Nouse......I happen to be part of that editorial team. But rank would be pulled I'm sure. I'm a deputy, you see, and the editors of most sections, are not so gallant.
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Rohan Banerjee
02:04 PM on 02/25/2013
1. The Huffington Post has already covered this situation, along with LSE and Sheffield. Ergo, it is perfectly understandable
2. Do you think Nouse, in all its Guardian-esque glory, would publish this? Be reasonable.
3. Portfolio innit
02:32 PM on 02/25/2013
Have you actually thought of submitting it to Nouse? The editorial team might be utterly insufferable, but I doubt they'd actually prevent you from publishing this article. Or is it easier to simply dismiss them as Orwellian thought police?
08:30 PM on 02/25/2013
A Tory studying at a top ten University with a persecution complex? Hilarious.
01:50 PM on 02/25/2013
Oh my god, are you seriously dredging up York drama and putting it on the Huffington Post? That's beyond sad. Keep it in Nouse. I actually agree with a lot of your points, but was it really necessary to air this dirty laundry on an international website?