Too close for comfort

At the age when your desire is the most active...

From: http://news.omy.sg/News/Local%2BNews/Story/OMYStory201109161521-276192.html

大学迎新玩男压女　女生被占便宜崩溃大哭

大学迎新会游戏玩出火，男女生几乎“嘴对嘴”、“胸贴胸”，女生感觉被占便宜，当场崩溃飙泪。

本地一所大学上个月举行三天两夜迎新会，让刚入学的学生彼此认识，增强凝聚力（bonding）。可是有知情者向《联合晚报》爆料，迎新会的游戏毫无意义，完全没有顾及到学生的感受，有女生对一些需要和陌生男生有亲密互动的游戏更是感到不适，一些甚至还崩溃大哭。

知情者说，这些游戏强制男女双方蒙眼，在不知对方身份的情况下，以秘密伴侣（secret partner)配对参加游戏。知情者说，游戏让女生感到不自在，一位女生以头痛为理由拒玩伏地挺身的游戏，她一路忍到迎新会尾声，忍不住崩溃大哭。

知情者对游戏也有异议。他说：“伏地挺身的游戏尤其‘恐怖’，男女生面对面，一个仰、一个伏，男生如果手软，或想乘机占女生便宜跌下来，岂不是和女生嘴对嘴、胸贴胸？”

---

This is not the first time such news have appeared. Some years ago NUS and NTU had similar complaints as well.

It seems like no matter which school/faculty you go, the camp organizers have the same mindset: 1) They like gender games, 2) They want you to get wet and dirty, 3) They expect everyone to click with each other in an instant.

True that you can make good friends through such 'bonding' activities, but it does not simply work for everyone. Sadly, I don't have any close friends made via such camps. I rarely participate in camps anyway. Putting forward such 'intense' games as icebreakers might be going too far, making participants feel uncomfortable and nervous, thus resulting in backfire. Like the term suggests, you only want to 'break the ice', you don't wish to shatter the soul embedded in the ice.

Personally, I'm never fond of war games involving water bombs or flour mixture, activities requiring close body-to-body contact, passing the soggy fries/biscuit/noodles mouth to mouth, etc.

When camp organizers/councillors pass on their ideas to juniors, and continue to be involved in camps when they graduate and enter higher institutions, this is what happens. The same concept perpetuates forever. God knows how long these traditions have been passed down, and where they originated from.

Anyway I'm amused by this phrase '或想乘机占女生便宜跌下来'. I can't say for sure if some guys enjoy these gender games because they can 'take advantage', but it's amusing just imagining such situation...haha.