Seal-Clubbing: Sport of Sorts

Rhodes legend has it that older guys love coming back for O-week. This is because they like to be the first to spot the new ‘talent’ and take advantage. This drunken past time is known as seal clubbing and one of the first things that your house comm. tell you when you arrive for O-week is to watch out for older guys. This trend no longer seems to be a past time exclusively for males, Rhodes women seem to have got in on the trend as well. For which I say well done! If men can do it so can we.

Yet if we look at seal clubbing you will find that it happens during O-week when it is generally regarded as easy picking because, lets face it, the majority of first years spent the week in a drunken stupor. I mean, can anyone really remember any of the lectures that they went to? Did you go to any lectures? This is however beside the point. Seal clubbing is the first year trying desperately to look cool, fit in and make new friends, for the older student its all about seeing how many people they can hook-up with and seeing if they can get with the hottest person they can find on that particular night. I suppose it is a sort of sexual competition.

Yet what about the fact that women are joining (and loving) this trend? It is another victory for women or it just sad. Maybe it is as simple as another drunken night in good old Grahamstown. Everyone knows how it goes, a big night out, lots of drinks and plenty of dancing and then just like that you are hooking up with someone that you never intended to. (And more often than not these hook-ups happen under the air-con at Friars. Don’t say that you haven’t been warned!) These things happen and for the most part, it’s okay. The general rule is what happens in O-week, stays in O-week. However does this rule apply to everyone or just first years?

Personally, I think that people who go out with the intention of hooking up with as many first years as possible are slightly twisted, be they guys or girls. It’s as if it (seal-clubbing) has become a sport, just another thing for people to measure their popularity, or lack of, with. I think that the ‘legend’ of seal-clubbing makes it seem worse than it actually is. Amy Green, a first year, thinks that “seal-clubbing is pretty sad but the reality is that these things happen, so it’s not really our place to judge.”

I have a problem with people going out with the express purpose of ‘seal-clubbing.’ How sad that their idea of a good night out in O-week is getting with as many first years as possible! I guess it is the whole ‘fresh meat’ concept and this university is a small place so I guess that an influx of new talent is a cause for celebration!