Fishy Fingers has been forced to change name due to complaints

Club night ‘Fishy Fingers’ has been forced to change name due to complaints that the club night title is “insenstive”.

Since the downfall of Wahoo, forcing the move of Fuzz, Fishies has become another night for Brookes sports teams.

However, the name has sparked controversy within the student population as people have deemed it as “insensitive” and “offensive”.

Pressure on the club has meant that the night will no longer be called ‘Fishy Fingers’, but instead just ‘Fishies’.

A PhD student at Oxford University, who wished to remain anonymous, exclusively told The Tab Brookes: “As a researcher on the subject of gender and sexuality, as a woman, and simply as a person I find the name Fishy Fingers vulgar, offensive and insensitive.

“Not only that, it is really out-of-touch and demonstrates that the promoters really need to get with the program.

“Sexism and lad-culture is not cool. It never was, but everyone else has come far enough to realise that now – apart from Fishy Fingers, that is.

“The verbal abuse I encountered when simply attempting to engage in an open discussion about the naming of this club night exposes the nastiness and ignorance inherent to the company and ‘lad culture’ more broadly.”

She continued: “I was told that plenty of girls go to the club night and so it can’t be sexist.

“Whilst the promoters acknowledged their branding was controversial, given that they have already received complaints, they made no attempt to properly address and take these complaints seriously.

“This demonstrates a complete lack of sincerity on the issues. They clearly have not taken the complaints already issued seriously. I’m not surprised, given the vitriol I received myself.”

Although there seems to have been controversy surrounding the name, Ox Events have stated that it won’t have an effect on the club night’s popularity.

A spokesperson from the O2 has said: “Fishies used to be a pop-up event run two to three times a year and was very popular.

“Now it is run every week and has become the most popular sports night attended by over 1000 mainly Brookes students, weekly.

“And we know there wasn’t an issue with the old or current name of the night by the student population. The night will continue it’s popularity despite a tiny minority.”

We also spoke with Elena, the SU President about the name change. She commented: “We received several concerns from students about the name Fishy Fingers and its connotations.

“We then discussed the concerns with The Ox Events and asked them to consider changing the name and we were pleased that they did.”