Provenance's C.U.Next Term: A Step Too Far?

It’s rather strange to remember that Friday was International Women’s Day (as reminded four times during a lecture on inequality) and the whole week was dedicated to celebrating women, when the scales are suddenly rebalanced with Gossip Wednesday at Provenance features C-U-N-T as its imaginative rewriting of SYNT (See You Next Term).

‘Everyone’s talking about it’, apparently. I suspect they are, for all their own reasons.

Give them their due, it is quite creative. Indeed, it is crude, but who goes to Provenance for class and sophistication? I certainly don’t. I seem to remember leaving hanging on to my friend’s shoulder, apparently trying to tell everyone I was definitely not drunk as I put on my coat backwards and upside down.

All right, not wild behaviour, but nevertheless, not exactly classy. And this is the point I wish to make about the title; it isn’t classy. Of course, single ladies almost expect to be approached at such events for sex. In fact, even taken ladies have to prepare for this eventuality. Especially when clearly inebriated.

This event is not meant to be classy, it’s meant to be WILD. These events generally attract more women than men, due to 53% of Southampton University students being female, and so drastic measures are taken to bring the boys back to town. Even if it is unsubtle references to a woman’s vagina.

I don’t think a woman really has a problem with the usage to suggest a crazy night out. We are too cool for that. I think my biggest problem with the usage is that it spells, “See You Next Term”.

In being unsubtle and just plain creepy, you are going to scare off those cool ladies who are offended by that. We complain about our vaginas, but degrade them in such a way that could mean “FREE PUSSY LADS! SHE’S ALL OPEN” then you will incur the Wrath of the Female. Ladies are aware that if one promises all men their vagina, they will not have a peaceful night due to the expectation, and will not thank you for it.

But I digress. Perhaps I’m an old lady who reads the newspaper and mourns the war when soldiers didn’t need Provenance to steal unsuspecting females. Surely it is possible to have a night out that has the most fun element (the potential for casual sex, or for us taken ladies, knocking back shots to the tune of conspiracy theories about 9/11) that everyone who wants to come to the event can have if they want it and avoid it if they don’t?

Indeed, Provenance is not the only club to embark on awkward event names. A few I have heard about, being a fresher (we go to everything because we ignore real life), include “Juiced” (poor men – we shall suck you dry!), Student Therapy (alcohol does not solve problems, it only makes you forget them. You confuse it with the Counselling Services!) and Sub:Mission (why can’t we just have a nice time without having to submit to an aggressor, or accept a challenge we don’t care about?). Provenance is arguably just following a current hot trend in having titles that ‘excite’.

The old lady in me would probably favour something like “Knees-Up in the Barn”. Knees were exciting back then. Nowadays, it’s juicing men and submitting them to therapy. Perhaps the liberation of society, or not, has encouraged this attitude? But it would seem it causes more problems than we care to admit. Who amongst us has been to Oceana, Voodoo, Orange Rooms, even Jesters and Sobar as well as Provenance, and seen fights, harassment  vomit, drugs…that’s not fun. That’s a disappointment.

“See You Next Term”? That’s pretty cold. No follow up date or anything? I have a feeling many men will probably be disappointed.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments section!