Offensive posters for sale at freshers' week

[ImJustMadAboutSaffron]

I'm a university lecturer. I have been out and about on freshers' week to different buildings and come across a poster sale that is on for a few days. There are several options for sale, Harry Styles, Blink 182, Stranger Things, Billie Eilish, Mabel, lots of different ones. But three I find really offensive, and I imagine some students would, too:

A Buddha with the wording "Don't be a Ct"
A poster with "Fk Off" in different coloured fonts
Another with the same words taking up the whole poster

Asterisks mine. Think I am repressed if you like, I don't care!

??

I'm asking if I am being unreasonable to find these offensive, or for thinking that some students would. We didn't have these for sale when I was a student in the ancient days of the 1990s!

So you don’t care. So what do you want from other posters?

I don't care if other posters think I am repressed for not finding this acceptable. I'm interested in views from others on these being for sale.

No, but in the 90s half the lads in my halls had pictures of bare tits up in the communal areas and we weren't supposed to mind. I'd far rather look at some swear words.

They've been selling posters like that for years at freshers fairs. Not to my taste personally but I wouldn't even think about it if I was perusing posters at the freshers fair.

We used to keep turning those over!

I remember 'offensive' posters being sold in the nineties. It wasn't a big deal then and it isn't now.

Students are so hypocritical. All of this crudeness on display, yet if you were to accidentally misgender one of these students they’d have a nervous breakdown on the spot and sue you for the trauma inflicted.

These have been available for years. It isn't anything new. Not to my taste, but they must sell otherwise they wouldn't keep producing them.

If you don't like, don't buy? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Are they selling? Then some people want them! They can put what they want up in their own houses can't they. I think that's the point. To me they sound offensive, unattractive and peurile but since when is what a middle aged woman likes the litmus paper of what students want on their walls?!

If you don't like them.... don't buy one.

Easy.

Absolutely!

Things for sale for students to buy that someone else may find offensive?

It’s not really shocking.

I imagine some students might be offended. However, there’s no right to never be offended. Neither you or anyone who finds it offensive has the right to lot be offended.

I actually think it would be a good lesson for a lot of young people to learn. And some fully grown adults to learn as well.

It's okay to be offended. I imagine that's partly the point of the posters. But surely you can handle it.

Do you ever read Viz, @Prancingponytail ? One rule for middle aged mums, another for the transwoke snowflakerati eh.

You don’t have a right to not be offended. What has our education system come to when university lecturers feel the need to make a post like this? 🤦🏼‍♀️

At a previous educational establishment I worked at, the shop sold newspapers and magazines. There was a campaign to ban Nuts and Zoo - and Loaded. It worked.

Sounds quite tame, are you new to working with this age group?

University lecturer who has accidentally misgendered several students. Not one has ever been offended or complained. I've said, sorry I made a mistake and they have moved on with life. I also teach a gender course so get quite a lot of trans students and so this has actually happened a few times.

And no I wouldn't find them offensive or raise an eyebrow in any way.

Most of the young people I teach are bright, kind, and open to learning.

Pretty much everyone had a Trainspotting poster when I was at university in the 1990s. That wasn’t exactly PG.

The Athena posters weren’t, either.

Students buy posters they think are edgy, don’t they? I’d just leave them to it.

If you're offended, you're offended. It's neither reasonable nor unreasonable of you. But... so what? Just because you're offended by those words, that doesn't mean they can't appear on posters.

There's a small chance that some students will be offended by those words but I'd be extremely surprised if any of them were particularly bothered. If you think a bunch of mostly 18-22-year-olds are going to be shocked by the words 'Don't be a cunt' I think you're being really naive.

I don't know when you were a student but I was a student 30 years ago and wouldn't have even thought twice about this. There were plenty of posters and t-shirts with language like that on them available back then, and also lots of drug references and so on. There was a big trend for a t-shirt with the word 'Cocaine' written in the style of the Coke logo and absolutely loads of stuff referencing Ecstasy, weed and acid.

Yes, in the 90s, it was definitely bare boobs/underwear shots on display. I suppose there is no need for that, with internet porn and also people voluntarily posting bikini snaps or other very revealing stuff on their social media. They must be pretty thick not to realise what some of the audience will be doing over that.

I mean, I like swearing, I do it every day and think it's funny. But I don't think I'd like the posters you describe.

It was posters of drugs in the 2000s.

OP the beauty of a poster sale for you and any especially fragile students is that none of you have to buy them. If easily upset students see them in someone's room they know they aren't on the same wavelength as the poster's owner and can move on with life.

Think of the fuck off poster as a visual friendship screening tool.

Buddha is a religious figure and Buddhism is against foul or rough language, so I think a poster with him and swearing is offensive but I wouldn’t stress about the others.