No Glove, No Love?
September 20th, 2011 by Crystal | Featured BloggerOoh la la! Something’s in the air!
Word has it that the French department has cut ties with EFUT, the hugely successful student-run club that is dedicated to supporting la francophonie. Scandalous! Specifically, the French Studies chair has stopped authorizing French department participation in all things EFUT. Their relationship has always been amicable, with faculty encouraging their students to join and partake in their activities. What could have possibly broken this relationship?
Condoms.
If you’ve been anywhere around campus lately, you will know that EFUT has promotional material everywhere. Perhaps the most unique and memorable are their condoms, with relevant dates and club information printed on the packaging.
The trouble usually starts when they're NOT there.
EFUT has been going around to French classes promoting their club. President Antonin Mongeau has informed me that EFUT reps do not explicit hand them out. They instead leave a handful of condoms in the classroom, leaving it up to the students to decide whether or not to put it to good use. Professors of these classes have reported that these condoms are making students uncomfortable, thus prompting the French Chair’s decisions to de-authorize all EFUT activity within their classes, as well as faculty participation in EFUT activities.
Some things to get straight:
- This is the second year EFUT has used condoms as promotional material.
- Despite a couple of grumbles here and there, there has never been a complaint filed by any student before. Therefore, EFUT has been treating it as a non-issue.
- Let’s be honest – the French are not strangers to some lovin’. If you take a look at the course handbook, you will see that we have courses that build on that very theme.
- The French Chair does not understand how condoms are part of EFUT’s mandate.
Some things to think about:
- Is handing out condoms an appropriate method of promotion?
- Do you like them?
- Is the French department’s concern old-fashioned and behind the times?
- Is it really that big a deal?
- Should EFUT be blatantly putting sex together with French at all?
EFUT has not issued a response to this yet. They are encouraging all their members and other students to visit www.frenchclub.ca and respond to a poll there. If you’ve got something to say, email them at and tell them what you think.
Of course, don’t forget to comment below and tell us at blogUT what you think is really going on. To condom or not to condom? That is the question.
September 20th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
As an exec member of EFUT I can say first hand that the French faculty was extremely nice during the classroom announcements. Some professors even wanted some of the free stuff we were giving out more than the students (movie tickets to Serge Gainsbourg). Moreover, our condoms were very well received during all of our events. At the UTSU clubs day, students would come to our booth sometimes solely to get a glimpse at our creative condom wrapper which holds all our event dates, a free drink coupon, all our information and a free condom!
I do not think that the condoms are a problem. They are promoting EFUT in a safe and innovative way and I hope the French Department will reconsider their view on EFUT in the near future.
September 20th, 2011 at 2:36 pm
As a four year french student and a new member of the EFUT exec I’ve been on both ends of the annual classroom announcements. At no point did I feel any sense of discomfort with what is obviously good-humored marketing. Condoms should not be held a point of concern especially since they are given out in every frosh package. Frankly it is disappointing to see EFUT getting so much attention for a minor blip currently overshadowing the positive impact we have and have had on student life.
September 21st, 2011 at 12:42 pm
I’ve been at U of T long enough to know that it’s easy to find condoms, for free, if you want them. Equity offices, college common rooms, sex-ed centres, even frosh packages (merci Aleksandra)…the list goes on, and never has there been an outcry about them. It would seem, surprisingly enough, that EFUT has been the sole target of this sudden (and unexplained) anti-condom outcry. To be frank, the condoms weren’t even advertised as such in classroom announcements, and they weren’t distributed there, rather they were simply left on a desk. If students really were uncomfortable with this, then might I suggest, with only a whiff of sarcasm, that the University should immediately rescind its sex-positive policy and attitude and repress every form of pro-sex and sexual health material and expression on campus.
That would make sense, no?
February 4th, 2012 at 8:03 am
Mathieu, are condoms made available during any other lectures at U of T?