Asking men to help the ladies ‘made students feel unsafe’

IT IS a rite of passage enjoyed by Britain’s brightest minds for generations, but a matriculation at Cambridge University has now become the unlikely casualty of “wokery”.

Wolfson College is embroiled in a sexism row after students said they were “made to feel unsafe” when a photographer for the onboarding ceremony asked “gentlemen to help the ladies”.

Dozens of new arrivals at the mostly postgraduate college were lined up posing in their signature Cambridge gowns on Oct 10 when the remark is said to have been uttered.

The students at the college, which counts several country leaders among its alumni, have now written a complaint letter seeking a formal apology over the “targeted atmosphere of inequality” which punctured a “safe space for all genders” on campus.

The row began on the evening of the ceremony, when several of those complained on the Wolfson College Student Association’s 450-member Facebook group about the “gendered language”, leaked to The Sunday Telegraph.

They said the photographer, who was an older man, offered to help students dismount from a raised platform and told them: “For any women that are having any problems, there are a couple of gentlemen that are here to help you.”

Last night, the saga attracted ridicule. Sir John Hayes, chairman of the Common Sense Group of 50 Tory MPs, told The Telegraph: “[This] photographer’s courtesy represents the civility well known to working-class patriots but [unknown] to out-of-touch ivory tower, immature, privileged snowflakes.”

Kate Tanha, the women and nonbinary officer at the Cambridge Union, the 200-year-old debating society, was one of those who welcomed writing a complaint letter, telling another student “you should totally do that” and offering to help draft and sign it.

The letter, seen by this newspaper, claims the external photographer’s remarks “are not in-keeping with the university’s ethos as a safe space for people of all genders” and created a “targeted atmosphere of inequality”.

Wolfson College said it had not yet received the letter and declined to comment as did the photography company.