It is for many Exeter students the highlight of their social calendar and with tickets at an absolute premium this year, the hype around the infamous “SSB” has reached fever pitch. With only a few weeks left until thousands of scantily glad students descend upon the Great Hall for RAG’s event to raise money for numerous aids and HIV charities, it’s safe to say SSB is the hot topic that everyone is talking about. From corsets to the all-important question of suspenders or no suspenders the culture of the Safer Sex Ball buzz is inescapable around campus.
But amongst all the glitz, glamour, and prominent burnt biscuit smell that seems to be emanating from hundreds of overly orange females (and a fair few males!), you cannot escape the darker side to SSB. Its notorious underwear dress code is a favourite feature for testosterone filled males, and the exhibitionist that live within all us girls. However, it’s also a breeding ground for un-needed insecurity, and sleepless night’s worrying not over that end of term essay, but over the prospect of spending an evening partying in attire usually kept for a rather more intimate setting.
The Safer Sex Ball this year is endorsing a “positive body campaign” to resolve criticism of the events dress code, which it has been blighted with in previous years. The age of plastic surgery and the glamour associated with the dangerously thin, which has been perpetuated through the media and the celebrity culture it endorses, has forced the issue of body image to the forefront. It’s no surprise then that girls feel insecure about their bodies on a daily basis, let alone when donning sexy lingerie. This anxiety over having to bare more skin than usual can lead girls to crash diet to dangerous lengths and hit the gym with vengeance. One friend of HCX noted that on her trips to the gym the majority of girls there admitted it was to do with SSB, while another admitted to overhearing a conversation between two girls in the Forum along the lines of: “What are we going to eat the day before SSB?” and the answer, “Nothing. Obviously!”.
Whilst we all know that a healthy diet and regular exercise is good for the mind, body and soul, being woken in the middle of the night by your stomach screaming at you to let it have a carb certainly isn’t. Whilst another stated prior to popular belief that we are all worried what the other sex would make of us, she knew friends who were “more concerned about what other girls would think about her than guys; the pressure was intense not only to look hot, but also to make the night live up to the expectations”.
This sense of expectation sums up the Safer Sex Ball, what with all the hype, anxiety and not to mention amount of time (and money!) that you have spent on a piece of lace that looks more accustomed to a life as a hankie, but is in fact passing as a whole outfit. There is most definitely a feeling of “this better be worth it” and for many an expectation of where the nights antics will take you, as let’s be honest, many go to the event with a Timepiece Wednesday mentality, multiplied a few… It can’t be ignored that sex is a massive part of many students university experience, and SSB at its core is celebrating this. It’s important to remember the aim of the Ball: to promote sex in a safe way.
However by having a dress code of pretty much ‘the less the better’, the sexualisation of the event is obvious and has even been picked up on on an international scale, being one of FHM’s “top 100 things to do before you die”. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t object to people having fun – we are young after all and if it’s safe and consented to then why not? But when, as the charming website True LAD puts it, the night is seen as “just a massive party where birds just wear underwear”, you can understand some people’s apprehension.
The massive amount of apprehension felt by numerous students, especially the female population of Exeter University, rears its ugly head in the form of alcohol consumption, and copious amounts of it at that. Girls, me and my housemates included, have all discussed the necessity to “Get smashed” before the event. A shot of vodka sadly becomes your best friend, and the only thing that can persuade many to leave their room in their semi-naked state! Alcohol has a major prominence at SSB for many. It is common, in the words of a Christian Union member, to see “very drunk and disorientated” girls at the event. The Christian Union volunteer at the event every year and provide a fantastic service assisting people home from the event, the majority of which were “girls alone who had gone with flatmates and friends and had lost them”.
Each year the same questions are brought forward about the controversies that surround SSB. But it should also be questioned why we feel this way; should it be blamed on the event itself and the accused distaste of the whole thing? Or should it be blamed on a society that puts so much prominence on looks and constantly promotes unhealthy body perceptions? Sadly, I fear it is the latter that drives many to attempt to drink their own body weight in vodka, and leaves many in tears of a night that didn’t live up to their highest expectations.
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