And so it was, the final meeting of the first semester, the final meeting of 2009 and the final meeting of the decade! It was going to be a good one too, all about sluts and stuff! Ms. Jackie Driscoll was in the Chair but before we got into a discussion about her weekend pastimes she opened up the floor to Private Members Time Motions

Mike spring (Post grad Education) proposed

TTH supports the public sectors right to strike

Mike told us how the media have villainised the strikers. Unions were necessary in the past and still need to struggle for workers rights today. Exploitation still happens and until that stops we need them to do their job.

Oisin Collins (Communications Officer)

The public sector workers need to operate within the boundaries of the economy. They’re just being greedy in a time when we all need to tighten our belts. Job security and stability is a trade off they make for entering the public sector.

Beartla De Burca (Past member)

We’re just blaming an easy target. The problems are not that of the public sector and we need to consider the wider picture before targeting them.

Martin Collins (HLM)

Unions are doing themselves a disservice. They haven’t reassessed their approach to the public vs. private issue. They’ve had a cynical approach for the last 10/15 years and need to cop on to the world around them.

Cornelia Carey (2^nd Medicine)

Would rather see this money go to the families in question than into the government coffers. Wage cuts won’t help the public sector and will only compound the problems for the families.

Stephany (BA Connect Human Rights)

Private sector job loss needs more stimulus than public sector pay packets. The public sector need to chill out, they’ve still got jobs and should be happy for that.

Summated and Carried

And with that we moved to main Business for the night.

The motion was TTHB Slut is not a dirty word.

In proposition was Zoe McNair, past member of the society

Zoe told us that this isn’t just an issue about the single word, but about sexism in general.

Everyone has a different interpretation of its meaning but it represents a societal judgement as well as a personal judgement on the actions of an individual.

Terms for sexual practice are in general positive for men and negative for women.

Statements such as these necessitate judgment on the action and no-one can make that judgement

Ellie Levenson, author of the “Naughty Girls Guide to Feminism”

Slut is an insult. A word is the sum of the ways in which it is used, and will always have a negative element to it.

Sexual freedom is ok, but the word slut is not. Enforces negative stereotypes and as much as you can try to reclaim it, it will always be an insult.

She might like the word slut, Jackie might like the word slut but it’s not just your own interpretation and societal interpretation is not something that can be broken.

Jack Kirwan

Words change their meanings all the time, it’s the intent behind the word that matters and that’s something that people can change.

Martin Collins (HLM)

The problem here isn’t men demeaning women with the term but rather women using the term against other women. The problem stems for confusion within the feminist movement about role models for women.

Margret Thatcher might have been a dominatrix, but maybe a little too tough.

Dave Finn (HLM)

There is no true definition of the word; it’s all about relative interpretation. Queer, Black, Paddy etc. Are all words that had negative meanings and were reclaimed. There’s nothing wrong with being a sexual entity, just need to liberalise people’s interpretation of it.

Sean Butler (HLM)

Genders are not equal, they are equitable. That doesn’t mean the exact same, it means valued equally. Biological roles through gender are still the same and men and women are built for different things, Men have 100 million sperm, women have 1 egg a month. Their roles in sexuality are different

Cornelia Carey (Med)

Life would be better if we all just stopped calling each other nasty things. Women can have multiple orgasms, and they’re great so let’s all just enjoy sex

Beartla De Burca (Past member)

The imbalance is in society, not in a word and changing this word won’t change mindsets. Equality is not being exactly the same and we need to realise that.

Oisin Robbins (Arts)

Its jealousy that this aggression and oppression comes from. Words are personal, be it good, bad or simply a statement of fact. People will have to come to their own conclusions

Eileen Coughlin (Arts)

Men have les emotional connections than women when it comes to sex. We have very different dynamics to sex between the sexes and that’s why the approach is different between the two. Homogenisation is not necessarily a good thing.

Mike Spring (Post grad Education)

Sex is a cultural thing; women are told how to interact with it as men were the social arbiters when it was established. Women need to break free from social identities for sex and come up with their own personal identities.

George Karr (Law)

People have a lack of self control and self control is something that should be held in high regard. Long term relationships are more beneficial than multiple partners, just look at children and how much they like marshmallows.

Aisling O’Connell (Arts)

Slut demeans women. It makes it seem like they should be ashamed of sexuality. People can like sex; it’s alright to enjoy it. As long as you’re safe and enjoying yourself, who has the right to judge you?

Conor Kelly (Arts)

Being demeaned by these terms is not just a gender specific thing. While it is more prevalent for women, men get it too.

Women will call men manwhores, men will call women sluts. The difference is that men rarely use it towards their own gender too.

It not about men or women specifically but about societies approach to promiscuity and that goes beyond a specific word.

The motion was Summated and Carried

And with that it was done, the “naughties” were over and we faced into a brave new decade.

All that was left to do was thank everyone for their contributions and invite them back for a post debate drink.