Jelly Wrestles Back: Counter-Protest Reaches 1000 Signatures

An online counter-petition calling for jelly-wrestling to be held at this year’s Wyvern Garden Party has exceeded 1000 signatures.

1000 up: the petition reached the a thousand signatures earlier this afternoon

This nearly matches the number of signatures on a petition started by Magdalene student Nina de Paula Hanika, and backed by the CUSU Women’s Campaign, demanding an end to the tradition on grounds of gender equality.

As reported by The Tab last week, de Paula Hanika’s petition persuaded the Wyverns drinking society to call off plans for the activity at this year’s garden party.

Back with a vengeance: they aren’t going down without a fight

But within hours of the story being broken, a counter-petition was set up, calling for the event to be reinstated.

It read: “The contestants participate of their own free will and are observed by both male and female spectators who enjoy the event for what it is; harmless fun.”

Writing on the petition webpage after reaching the landmark number of signatures, counter-petition starter ‘The Cambridge Nutter’ announced that he/she/it would “be contacting the Wyverns to let them know”.

Might we see similar scenes next month?

Speaking to The Tab this afternoon, the president of the Wyverns gave the following statement:

“The Wyverns would like to make it clear that we have had no part in creating this petition or publicising it.

“However, we’d like to give a massive thank you to all of our loyal guests for your continued support during this bereavement period! We will not let you down!

“Rest assured, all of the jelly prize money has been repurposed into R&D to create some truly filthy cocktails.

“Meanwhile, investigations are on-going into alternative viscous desserts for WGP13…”

The top rated comment on the counter-petition

Apart from Cambridge students, some signatories of the counter-petition claimed to be from countries as far-flung as New Zealand and the USA.

Criticism has been made of the fact that several signatories do not appear to be genuine people, with pseudonyms such as ‘Pat Macrotch‘ and ‘Hugo Vincent Montmorency Finchley-Smythe-Harpersley-St.John‘ among the signatures.

Cambridge fave ‘Mary Beard’ also made an appearance

Second year Caian Jerome Singh wrote that he had signed the petition “because I refuse to buy that a woman intelligent enough to get into Cambridge is thick enough to be blinded by ‘patriarchal culture’ that she can’t make a rational decision whether she wants to jelly-wrestle or not.

The Tab approached the CUSU Women’s Campaign for comment, but had received no response at the time of publishing.