Cambridge college bans ‘over-sexualised’ 50 Shades-style ball video filmed by students
A CAMBRIDGE college threatened to cancel its “Forest of Sin” themed May Ball over an “over-sexualised” Biblethemed video filmed by students.
Dons at Hughes Hall forced students to take down the 50 Shades of Greystyle trailer for the annual event from Facebook because it could “reflect badly” on the college.
The risqué video shows masked men and women in black tie and ball-gowns escaping into woods to kiss and pour champagne into each other’s mouths, culminating in a girl in a white dress taking a bite out of an apple.
The move to ban the video comes just a week after Cambridge University admitted it had a “significant problem” with sexual misconduct. Hughes Hall has now been accused of censorship after the video was removed from a website for the £96-a-ticket party featuring burlesque and pole dancing on June 16. Georgia Ziebar, the president of Hughes Hall May Ball committee, said: “While we thought the trailer was sexy and fun, it appears we may have overstepped the mark and therefore agreed to take it down.
“We have a meeting with college on Monday in order to resolve the issue, and hope not to aggravate the situation more.” Joe Cook, who produced the trailer, said: “If the college takes issue with the video they should be promoting discussion about it, not censoring it and trying to cover it up. Fortunately hundreds had already watched the video and I’m sure the May Ball will be a great event despite this censorship.”
Hughes Hall was founded for female mature students in 1885. It has around 690 students of both sexes. Alumni include Dr Andrew Murrison, Conservative MP and former under-secretary for Northern Ireland, and Tom Ransley, the 2016 Olympics gold medal-winning rower.
Despite the intervention, the committee is understood to be sticking to the theme of the June 16 event, though the video may be reshot.
A spokesman for Hughes Hall said: “The college has a duty of care to its students, including their online welfare, and had understandable concerns about the nature and content of the May Ball trailer. The student May Ball committee kindly agreed to remove the video from the May Ball website and social media until we are able to have a more detailed with committee members on Monday.”
The video was still available on Youtube. Last week Cambridge University acknowledged it had a “significant problem” with sexual misconduct, after receiving almost 200 complaints in a matter of months after launching an anonymous reporting system.