Yes, he does want to tell his story about the lustrum party of student corps ASC/AVSV, about what he saw happen as a waiter, but then anonymously.
“The atmosphere was fine in the beginning. The ladies and gentlemen sat separately. Normally it is one large room, but for the occasion it was divided.” The employee and his colleagues served both rooms on Sunday evening, and so walked back and forth between the room with the men and the room with the women. They brought around plates full of food and glasses of drink.
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He did not ‘listen extensively’ to the speeches, in which misogynistic, sexist statements were made, after all, he was at work. But: “Nobody could have missed the chanting of ‘that word’.” With ‘that word’ the employee refers, among other things, to the moment when the corps members were asked: ‘Women are nothing more than a…’ After which the group replied with a chanting ‘whore’.
“The ladies on the other side will also have heard that,” says the waiter.
Footage of the speeches can be seen below:
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great indignation
After the images of the lustsrum party leaked out, great indignation arose. Female members of the association sent a letter of fire. The rector of ASC/AVSV states that there will be consequences for those who made the statements.
Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema considers the statement to ‘break women’s necks’, which can also be heard in the video, as a ‘call for violence against women’. She’s going to see what measures she can take against the ASC.
According to D66 leader and Deputy Prime Minister Sigrid Kaag, the indignation is ‘encouraging’, she said via LinkedIn. She supports the women within the association who have risen up against this and the ‘thousands of disapproving reactions from women and men throughout the Netherlands’. “That’s the way it should be. Don’t be quiet.”
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Chairs in the air
The waiter says that at one point it became restless between a few tables, there was a disturbance, beer was thrown, here and there some chairs flew through the air. A few people also made nasty comments to the wait staff.
“At a certain point it was decided that no dessert would be served at the gentlemen’s. Their dinner was interrupted prematurely and they left for another room, so that it became quieter again.”
This employee does not know exactly how other employees have experienced it, and whether more has happened or been said. But, what he does know: “It was a very unpleasant experience for us.”
The name of the waiter is known to the editors.
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