1989

R.O.F.F.’s Watching

In October 1989, a group of male students put several derogatory signs up on the windows of their dorms in Gordon Hall to mock the “No Means No” campaign, igniting frenzied media coverage and heated debate [1]. When questioned about the misogynistic and violent messages, the residents of Gordon Hall claimed they were jokes meant to lighten up the sexual violence awareness campaign on campus [2]. Students in McNeill, the residence across the street from Gordon Hall, responded by putting up signs in their windows that read “No Means No,” “End Misogyny Now” and “No Means It’s Too Small.”[1] With little response from either the administration or the residence council, a group of women students banded together to create ROFF: the Radical Obnoxious Fucking Feminists and staged acts of resistance including vandalizing the pavement outside Gordon Hall with the messages “No Means No” and “ROFF’s Watching” in water soluble paint [1].

In November, a group of 30 to 50 women staged a 29-hour sit-in at the principal’s office to protest the lack of administrative response to the issue and the lack of support available on campus for sexual violence survivors [3] [2] [1]. Concealing their faces with scarves to avoid being targeted with violent backlash [3], the group, later confirmed to be primarily members of ROFF [1], put up “No means No” signs in the office’s windows. The spokesperson delivered the group’s statement and seven demands–which included funding for the Sexual Assault Centre Kingston [4]–from the second-floor window of Richardson Hall while over 100 students watched on and cheered in support [5]. The group left the principal’s office only after they felt that they had succeeded in bringing light to the urgent and serious nature of their concerns [4]. 

1. Hutchison, P. 2010. “No” now really does mean “No”. Queens Alumni Review, Retrieved from  https://www.queensu.ca/alumnireview/articles/2010-02-04/no-now-really-does-mean-no

2. Ross, I. 1989. “Women end sit-in” The Queen’s Journal, Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/queensjournal117/page/n324/mode/1up

3. Stewart, I. 1989 “Thirty women conduct sit-in at principal’s office” Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/queensjournal117/page/n308/mode/1up

4. Huizinga, R. 2020. ‘Calls for sexual assault centre on campus unanswered for more than thirty Years’, The Queens Journal, Retrieved from https://www.queensjournal.ca/story/2020-03-13/investigations/calls-for-sexual-assault-centre-on-campus-unanswered-for-more-than-thirty-years/

5. Lu, V. 1989 ‘Women leave sit-in Friday “holding heads high”’ The Queen’s Journal, Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/queensjournal117/page/n326/mode/1up