There are some wokefications in this world of ours that are a little more disheartening than others. One of those was the news that on June 4th, Cambridge University’s Corpus Christi College at held a Pride themed Formal Hall in its beautiful Pugin wallpapered, 19th Century gothic Dining Hall.
The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary was founded by townspeople in 1352 after the Bubonic plague had decimated 30-40 percent of the population. As the Italian author Bocaccio commented, such was the terrifying speed at which the virus spread, that its victims ‘ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise.’ About 2/3 of the clergy were wiped out, prompting the surviving members of two Cambridge gilds, still reeling from the horror, picked themselves up and founded a college specifically to train priests.
This June, the college sought to create a ‘comfortable, safe space for our LGBTQ+ family’ with a Pride themed Formal Hall. Organisers positioned an enormous rainbow balloon arch at the hall’s entrance, which was apparently ‘the showstopper of the evening.’ Once they had taken their seats in front of plates adorned with rainbow napkins, attendees were treated to selection of queer- themed lectures, delivered from a lectern draped in a voluminous rainbow flag.
First up was Leah Palmer of the Scott Polar Institute who talked about ‘how queer voices are changing our thinking about the Arctic and Antarctic regions’. She was followed by a public servant who rift on ‘what LGBTQ+ people think about having children’. Then an induvial by the name of Roan Runge from the Department of Anglo Saxon- Norse and Celtic, gave a lecture on medieval Irish hagiography from a ‘Trans Studies perspective’. According to her bio, Ms Runge occupies her time by ‘thinking about the continued dehumanization of trans people, as well as trans reclamations of unhumanity and monstrosity’, hoping to ‘take theoretical approaches to figures who linger between species and gender.’ The evening must have been a blast.
Once the propagandising was over, hungry college members were dished up the type of fare that you might expect at a four-year old’s birthday party, the catering staff apparently pulling out all stops to produce a three-course meal of rainbow -themed food. The entire evening was an embarrassing infantilisation of students, academics, and staff. The college has survived the Peasants Revolt, the Reformation, Civil War and Two World Wars, but whether it will survive the war on reality by the forces of woke remains to be seen.
