Last Saturday, Helsingkrona Nation hosted their annual ball, Snörsjöabalen, in AF-borgen. When a female guest lamented over a certain performance, which she found sexist, she was ejected.
“I really hate that song and wanted to emphasize the fact that it doesn’t feel very honorable being dedicated a song about a prostitute,” says Klara Hammarstrand, who was the guest ejected.
It was during the course of the dinner at Helsingkrona annual ball when Lund Academic Sailing Association, Lass, entertained the guests by performing an act. The objective of the performance was to ask the chief usher of the ball, who was a woman, to step up to the stage. The members of the gentlemen order then kneeled before her, singing “The Girl from Havana” – a song by Evert Taube alluding to a prostitute who is trying to earn money by attracting sailors.
Ejected after dinner
When the audience was done applauding, Klara Hammarstrand rose from her seat and pointed out that the people present had just applauded 25 people who had sung a song about a whore.
“There have been so many times where they have tried to sing that song to me and my friends. It’s awful when somebody dedicates a repulsive song to you.
Afterwards, numerous people approached Klara Hammarstrand to express their support. However, the Helsingkrona Nation Curator Board did not approve of this episode. After dinner, a security guard approached Klara Hammarstrand and told her that he had been called on to eject her from the ball.
“I don’t mind them throwing me out if they thought of me as disrupting the order. But considering how people at other tables behaved, standing on their chairs, shouting and spontaneously accompanying the singing, it’s obvious that I wasn’t ejected because I said something, but because of what I said. You can’t criticize anything,” says Klara Hammarstrand.
Curator sustains his decision
Robert Lekström, Helsingkrona Nation Curator, sustains the decision of having Klara Hammarstrand ejected.
“I understood that her criticism was aimed at the song, but she expressed herself in a way that made her sound as if she was addressing our chief usher a “f*cking whore”.
When Rober Lekström had faced Klara Hammarstrand in person, he assessed her as being “highly intoxicated”.
“At that point, I decided to consult our entrance hosts to confer about the most reasonable thing to do, since she was so intoxicated and disrupting the order. I decided that they talk to her after the sitting and, later on, ask her to leave,” says Robert Lekström.
Klara Hammarstrand rejects the allegations of having been too intoxicated.
“I only had been drinking what the ball served, and that shouldn’t have you ejected.
However, after Saturday’s ball, Helsingkrona Nation has decided to not invite Lass to next year’s ball.
“The main reason is the fact that they are always a real buzzkiller, but our decision is also based on the fact that people don’t like them,” says Robert Lekström.
Text: Annika Skogar
Photo: Jens Hunt
Translation: Maxim Aleman Tennell
