Banner hanging near UW-La Crosse starts social media outrage about “rape culture”

Chancellor Gow, “Even stupidity is protected by the First Amendment.”

The banner read, “Free cream pies w/valid freshman ID.” 

It was painted on a bed sheet and hung from an upstairs apartment near the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

The double entendre was posted to Instagram (the accounts appear to have been deactivated), and a La Crosse native posted it to Facebook, insinuating the message was promoting “rape culture.”

UW-L Chancellor Joe Gow is, of course, none to happy about what the students hung from their balcony, but said since they did not violate any policy, his hands are tied. 

“Great gray area, free speech, and even stupidity is protected by the First Amendment,” Gow said.

“It’s idiotic,” he continued. “I hope the students feel very ashamed, (the students) that did this. I was glad to see that we have had people speak out against it because that’s the right thing to do under the circumstances.”

Demi Dahl’s post (on right), which has been shared over 1,800 times, sparked a social media feud that eventually brought the issue to Gow’s attention.

Dahl, who ignored requests to discuss the issue, wrote: “An unfortunate example of promoting rape culture on the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (c)ampus. You may think this was a harmless joke but the reality is that the more we see posts like this online, the more rape culture is normalized in our society.”

Arguing in the comments of Dahl’s original post, someone else argued this was a double-standard, posting another picture of, apparently, female students hanging a similar banner (below, though this comment appears to have since been deleted from Dahl’s original post).

Reaction on social media has been strong toward the males with several people demanding the students be expelled. Gow says he hopes this can be a learning experience.

“We’ve reached out to the students and said come in and talk to us, because we’re very concerned that they wouldn’t be able to see the effect that this would have, not only how it represents the university, but how women would feel in that neighborhood.”

Gow also sent a letter to “students and colleagues,” which read in part: “Over the weekend some of our students hung a highly offensive and sexist banner from the balcony of their off-campus apartment. I want all of you to know that UWL strongly condemns this kind of behavior—it is ignorant, it represents our university very poorly, and even if it was meant as a joke, the negative impact on the UW-L community is very real.”

This is one of a few incidents at UW-L that has sparked conversations and sometimes controversy. 

Just last week, UW-L students published a video talking about racism and diversity on campus.

Last February, Gow and the university had to deal with a student drawing of a lynching found in a dorm room.

And, going back to Nov. of 2015, a confederate flag on a semi parked on campus – part of a construction crew – caused an uprise. In that incident, UW-L asked the driver to remove the flag, which he did.

That led to a discussion about UW-L’s hate/bias page, where students can report wrongdoings, as well as see each reported incident for the past decade.