From August 1 2016, licensed Texans will be allowed to carry concealed weapons on the campuses of public universities. In the wake of a spate of campus shootings, a group of students have decided to protest the incoming law by entering classrooms carrying different accessories: dildos.
Organised by Jessica Jin, a 24-year-old alumnus of the University of Texas at Austin, under the banner of Campus (Dildo) Carry, on August 24 2016 students and others who want to participate will enter the UT campus with sex aids strapped to their backpacks.
People want me dead for a dildo
The movement began as a joke, Jin told the Houston Chronicle, because dildos are “just plain funny”.
“Additionally, the dildo has proven itself to be interesting fodder for commentary on what our society does and does not consider ‘obscene’,” she said. “The narratives surrounding sexuality (or just dildos, in this case) and guns are more intertwined than one would expect, and more similarities seem to unfold every minute.”
Since Jin formed the idea for the protest on Friday, the day of a campus shooting at Texas Southern University, the movement has grown. More than 4,600 people have pledged to participate.
Dildos are “just about as effective as [guns in] protecting us from sociopathic shooters, but much safer for recreational play”, Jin wrote in her event description.