The Bridge nightclub has been asked to respond to complaints from students after it held a club night called “Midget Night Bridge”, in lieu of its weekly ‘Monday Night Bridge’ fixture. Ostensibly an Oxford Brookes night, ‘MNB’ is is popular with many Oxford University students
The event, which took place this Monday, featured two men of short stature engaged in chasing each other around the club and wrestling.
The two men, dressed as Captain America and Superman, also posed for photographs with clubbers, which the club has since posted on its Facebook page.
Jesus fresher Rupert Elston told Cherwell that, before entering the club, “We turned around the corner and saw two smaller people in costumes. We wondered what was going on, and by the time we got to the paying area all of us were saying that it was a bit ‘off-key’.”
He added, “It felt wrong — really weird.”
Once inside the club, Elston described seeing them “running around and chasing each other.” He explained, “Everyone I spoke to about it there was a bit shocked and appalled. It all seemed quite unnecessary — I didn’t see the point in calling it Midget Night Bridge and hiring two people to run around in costumes.”
A second year lawyer who also attended told a similar story, relating, “As we went up the stairs from Anuba we saw two people in sumo costumes wrestling. It was clearly meant to be some kind of entertainment, but we just found it really weird.”
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The event has been criticised by Brookes’ Disability Advisory Service. Spokesperson Susannah Lloyd-Shogbesan told Cherwell, “It is certainly the case that use of the word ‘midget’ to refer to someone with Dwarfism is deemed to be derogatory and could cause offence.” She added that she would be investigating the appropriateness of this kind of billing with the Student Union.
On the Facebook event page before the night had begun, one student commented, “This seems so wrong”, while the Monday Night Bridge Facebook page ‘liked’ another comment which declared, “It only happens one a year!”
The Bridge nightclub has yet to respond to Cherwell’s request for comment.
