guardians through censorship." Which suggests that few girls - or boys for that matter - see anything amiss with this wave of overt sexism.

But as students return for the spring semester, there are signs of a backlash. Kat Stark, National Women's Officer for the National Union of Students (NUS), is currently dealing with a flood of complaints from female students.

And the Loughborough student president is not, it seems, speaking for all her sisters. The Nuts event drew protests from the East Midland Feminists, one of several newly formed feminist societies.

"These events are just degrading," said a first-year female student at Loughborough. "We wouldn't be expected to support a racist or homophobic event, yet a sexist one is considered acceptable."

At York, women students do complain about the Pole Exercise

Women fought so hard for their sexual freedom, but now it’s as if feminism never happened

club and the Playboy Mansion branding. A third-year female student described a poster for Pole Exercise depicting a naked woman sliding down a pile of coins: "The hook being used is the sexual objectification of women, and the idea that we can be bought and sold."

Kat Stark of the NUS says: "These women are not against sex, they are against sexism. It is nothing to do with prudishness, just a question of political awareness. Sometimes it seems as if feminism never happened. It's terrible that after women fought so hard for their sexual freedom all those years ago, it is now being stolen from them again."

Additional reporting: Lesley Yarranton