We asked Sheffield students what they made of the ‘Consent is a myth’ bar crawl t-shirts

Has it changed the vibe on campus?


It’s been a week since our exclusive story of the North vs South vs Midlands bar crawl t-shirts with ‘Consent is a myth’ written on them.

The story peaked the interest of national newspapers and had the whole campus talking. So we spoke to students across Sheffield to ask what they thought of it all, and how it’s changed their attitude to clubbing in Sheffield.

Last week an image surfaced of a student wearing a North vs South vs Midlands bar crawl t-shirt with ‘Consent is a myth’ scrawled over it in Sheffield bar Tiger Works. Other people on the bar crawl allegedly had shirts with the phrases ‘Rape is not a crime’ ‘She CAN be asking for it’ and ‘Maddie McCann is in my cupboard’.

One of the boys was photographed in Tiger Works

One of the boys was photographed in Tiger Works

Matt, a second year Marketing, Communications and Advertising student at Sheffield Hallam photographed the group in Tiger Works. Matt told The Tab: “Everyone was looking at them and dead-eyeing them, my group of 10 people moved away because it was ruining the night seeing such disrespectful stuff.”

We spoke to more students around campus to find out what they thought about the story.

Ellie Brosnan, a second year Film Studies student at Hallam saw the group on the bar crawl. Ellie said: “I was there, they arrived at Tiger Works with the phrases written on their t-shirts already.

“I have to say I didn’t get particularly offended, but I was disappointed and it saddened me. What pissed me off was that later on in the night I saw a lad with a swastika drawn on his t-shirt.

“I don’t think I stopped mentioning it the rest of the night, I was that angry.”

Other students reacted angrily to the the news. Alice Proctor, a second year Marketing student at Hallam said: “I genuinely don’t understand how people that are supposed to be intelligent enough to be studying a degree at university are stupid enough to assume they’d get away with something as immature and disrespectful as this!

“It’s disgusting and shines Hallam students in a bad way too, not fair!”

The group were seen inside Tiger Works

The group were seen inside Tiger Works

Matt Edge, a second year Quantity Surveying student at Sheffield Hallam said:”Disgusting. I can’t believe people still act that way. We’re in 2017.”

From our time on campus at SHU, a general consensus was shared: this is not okay.

The sentiment was also similarly felt among societies, with some taking measures to prevent similar incidents happening. Eimantas Lukocius, a Hallam second year and committee member of Hallam Students’ Union’s Wine Appreciation Society said: “We identified this kind of behaviour from lads and lasses as a problem.

“People take jokes way too far nowadays due to the power of social media. We’ve implemented the ‘X rule’ wherein members text a society phone the letter ‘X’ if they are ever in a situation with anyone where they feel uncomfortable.

“Committee members will intervene immediately, no questions asked, as we all have their numbers. Our top priority is the safety and comfort of our members, and since the T-shirt story came to light, it feels jeopardised.”

So, will this national story change the way we view ‘freshers’ humour’? Hopefully, students and freshers in years to come will realise that humour is all about context. Think about what the rest of the city (or in this case, the country) will think about your ‘totes bants shirts’ and grow up.

Photo Credit: Matthew Millner and Calvin Merry