Hey Barstool Bucknell, maybe don’t joke about sexual assault?
It’s really not that difficult
If you’re one of the 350 people who follow the Barstool Bucknell Instagram account, you know that occasionally, they post some funny stuff. I mean- who doesn’t love seeing a video of professors juggling in the gym, or of a perfectly caught beer toss?
It’s a celebration of the rowdy, fun Greek-life culture of Bucknell. I get it.
But, with their latest post, the Barstool Bucknell account crossed the line. Over the weekend, they posted a photo of a guy grabbing a girl’s butt and captioned it, “Take a shot, take a quick feel. No big deal.”
Let’s be clear: “Take a shot, take a quick feel. No big deal” isn’t what makes Bucknell party life fun— or worth celebrating. In fact, it’s slogans like this that claim “taking a quick feel” is “no big deal” that lead to 28.5% of students reporting “overall sexual assault” in 2013.
I’ll be the first to admit that Bucknell has one of the best party scenes in the nation. But what the Barstool Bucknell account fails to understand is that drinking and non-consensual groping don’t go hand-in-hand. Nor does a photo of someone, presumably, grabbing someone else’s ass with this caption make for a funny Instagram post.
Sexaul assault isn’t a funny, celebratory part of Bucknell’s culture. It’s a serious issue that needs to be addressed, and certainly not by calling it “no big deal.”