Stripper speaks out
Melissa Butler, the ex-Balliol undergraduate, who hit the headlines when she revealed she had been leading a double-life as a Soho stripper, has hit out against her former college and described the Oxford environment as being, "very intimidating".
The former PPE student recently slammed the academic climate of Oxford, which she says drove her to become a stripper in order to
relieve feelings of inadequacy, in an interview with the Mail on Sunday .
"Oxford was threatening me, even the buildings," she claims. " I never felt I could confide in the tutors with their caps and gowns, like bats; they were totally intimidating. Everyone knew each other and I was terrified of everyone, but afraid to admit I felt inadequate."
Butler claimed that despite Balliol's tolerant and liberal reputation, she faced harassment after people found out that she was a stripper. As well as being insulted by strangers in the street, "just to finish me off entirely my next-door neighbour played outrageously loud music through the night, occasionally banging on my wall and bellowing, 'Oi Slag! Come out here and join the party!'
She said that she received no academic support when her work began to suffer as a result of her problems. "Economics was a complete mystery. I couldn't grasp a word. My tutor recognised this and eventually dispatched one of his star students, the biggest bitch I ever hope to meet, to bully me into comprehension. She spent several hours squealing over my ineptitude in bewilderment and horror and then gave up."
However students from Balliol strongly disagreed with her allegations, saying that she was hardly ever in college, spending most of her time in London. One Balliol second-year told the Oxford Student, "I didn't know who she was."
Butler's claims have prompted fresh debate over the level of support received by students feeling the pressure in Oxford. OUSU Vice President (Welfare), Matt Edwards, agreed that Oxford can be an intimidating environment but stressed that this is often not as bad as it seems. "People often feel that they don't fit in in the first few weeks," he said, "but those who end up feeling they will never fit in and have to leave are very much the exception rather than the rule.