P.U.L.L Fridays

It’s just a name.


As a young female fresher, I feel like I should have been more concerned by the name ‘P.U.L.L.’ for the Union’s club nights, but the truth is I didn’t really mind. The abbreviation ‘P.U.L.L.’ was an unfortunate side effect of naming the club ‘Postgraduates and Undergraduates Loving Life’ (which I think is a pretty cool title). I’m penalised all the time for not identifying as a feminist but I simply didn’t find the name offensive or sexually aggressive.

However, some did. The connotations of sexual hunting and laddish culture were thought to be encouraged by ‘P.U.L.L.’ … their argument simply put: this is St Andrews not Dapper Laughs.

The campaigners who succeeded in changing the name felt the title condoned sexual aggression and created a threatening environment. ‘P.U.L.L.’ doesn’t really shout safe and secure, more like uncomfortable and hostile. The promotion of a sexual hunting ground, the feminists argued, contradicted the friendly atmosphere the Union tries to encourage.

I can see the attraction of that stance and its roots, but for others, like me, ‘P.U.L.L.’ just wasn’t an issue. Some just didn’t consider the name that much of a problem – Friday nights are for dancing and drinking, who cares what the place is called? The club is somewhere you go to at the end of the night anyway, when pre-drinking has reached the stage when you’re ready to dance like no one’s watching. After so much alcohol the name is forgotten. Does the club even need a name? They’d probably get more people through the doors if they actually opened the doors as an extended part of the Union and didn’t charge four quid… but that’s a separate issue.

So now it’s back to ‘The Bop’. After 436 signatures and a lot of Facebook sharing within 24 hours, ‘P.U.L.L.’ is out of the picture. However, with such a quick turnaround over just a name, how did it even get sanctioned? Let’s hope that next time the Union wants to rename something, they run it past the feminists first and save the aggro.