Breast(s) not best for UCT coffee drinkers

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A coffee cup showing a pair of breasts – that is what is at the centre of a row at the University of Cape Town. The coffee cups were apparently used at a upper campus coffee shop, in the Leslie Social Sciences Building, for about 10 days. Emblazoned with the slogans “Got Milk?”, “Caution: Hot Coffee” and “No Motorboating” the coffee cups offended some staff and students. After a number of complaints the cups were removed.

The cups feature Axe deodorant logos. The breasts are not naked, but are covered by a bra.

SRC president Insaaf Isaacs, who had not been aware of the cups until she was contacted by the Cape Times, said: “The SRC will have to take action. That is unacceptable.

“I would imagine the UCT code of conduct would not condone those marketing strategies.”

UCT student Olivia Walton said she felt she should not be assaulted with sexual imagery while buying a cup of coffee on campus.

“UCT is an academic institution. Its stated ideals are transformation, equality, and intellectual excellence.

“All of these things necessitate one other quite important thing: thought.

“If you allow the naked body of half of your population to be splashed across campus for all to see (and hold and laugh at) at a place where, it is claimed, all are assumed to be equal in their intellect, their capacity, their rights, their opportunities, then you have not thought,” she wrote in an opinion piece for the Cape Times.

On a blog called fractionalpeople, a post titled “Stupid Sexist Flanders” said the use of the cups on campus showed the university did not value women.

UCT refused to comment on the matter.

Unilver, the company which manufactures Axe, did not respond to a request for comment. - Cape Times