“Feminism doesn’t mean they don’t like the D, they just haven’t found one to satisfy them yet.”
The above quote is just one of the torrent of abusive, sexist comments 17 year-old Jinan Younis and her fellow classmates encountered when they tried to set up a feminist society at their school in Altrincham. For young girls and university students, this kind of behaviour is an almost daily occurrence. It’s called ‘lad culture': sexism, rape culture and racism thinly veiled under the guise of ‘banter’. This, of course, means that the so-called lads are very hard to pin down as doing anything overtly wrong, as they can claim it is all in the name of comedy.
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Tragically, the case of Altrincham Grammar is just the tip of the iceberg. ‘Lad culture’ is a plague that has swept throughout all British educational systems and can be found in secondary/high schools and in universities all over the country.
With the continued enhancement of quick communication via the Internet and other technology, whether that be through Twitter, Facebook, email or text, it is becoming easier and easier for people to spread their message of hate. Behind a computer screen, it is easy to be as vulgar and hateful without thinking of the repercussions it might have. In the case of Altrincham Grammar, almost all of the slanderous communication was done through social media; the boys could say what they wanted without having to look anyone in the eye as they said it.
This is, unfortunately, very common. Just one look at the popular Facebook group ‘Lad Bible’ (followed by 1.8 million people) shows us this behavior in action. There is a whole section dedicated to photos that men have sent in of their ex girlfriends, most of them hugely private photos. On one photo of a girl topless, one guy writes, “skets probably deserve it,” while another writes, “A great man once said…..’Women, they’re all cunts but to varying degrees!’ And who here could argue with that logic.” One man defends the women saying that he is engaged because he treats women with respect and he is immediately set upon by ‘lads’ who think he’s a ‘pussy’.
Of course, the girls are also rated out of ten based on their physical appearances. Just a quick scan through the site delivers a plethora of ‘get into the kitchen jokes’, comments on women’s weight (on one photo a lad comments that a girl is a ‘whale’ and that Japanese fishermen are ‘sharpening their harpoons’.) Women are continually referred to as ‘wenches’, ‘sluts’ and ‘whores’.
Frankly, I am disgusted and shocked to see just how many of my Facebook friends are followers of the group and just how many women join in the sexism. The Pankhursts are turning in their graves. And the Lad Bibles isn’t the only group; there is the Uni Lad (just under 500,000 followers),Ultimate Lad, (100,000), The Lad Experience (over 30,000 followers on Twitter) and hundreds of groups and forums for specific universities where men can talk in disgusting details about their lays.
Through the use of social media, it is becoming easier and easier for young boys to be caught up in a culture of misogyny. It has become popular to be sexist and young boys are being conditioned to think of women as nothing more than a toy for them to play with. But ‘lad culture’ is one of massive contradictions, like most patriarchal systems. It both forces women into sexual roles and calls them ‘whores’ and ‘sluts’ when they fulfill those roles.
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Of course, sexism and its place at universities is and has always been commonplace. Just a few months ago, The Daily Mail told the story of Rebecca Meredith, who was heckled with sexist threats at a debate. In 2011, Exeter University published a ‘shag mag’ which told of how many calories you could burn if you took a girl’s clothes off without her consent. You want to talk about rape culture? It’s everywhere, all the time.
After speaking to the American writers of Velociriot, I was horrified to find that this isn’t just a British problem. In American universities this kind of ‘lad behaviour’ is commonplace in fraternity houses.
In 2007, female med students of Yale University filed a complaint against the university for allowing an environment of sexual hostility. Among some of the incidents, an email was sent around ranking freshmen by “how many beers it would take to have sex with them,” and there was an event where men gathered and shouted the women were “fucking sluts” and “No means yes! Yes means anal.” At the University of Southern California, an email came to light which referred to women as “targets”. Again, it was the use of quick Internet communication that was able to light a fire.
The real sadness here is that in 2013, women still feel afraid of those they consider classmates. At school or university you should feel safe and secure. In my first year of university, in Manchester, UK, several girls were raped near my university halls. We were told to shout “fire” should there be an issue, because apparently no one comes if you shout “rape.” My grandfather brought me a rape alarm to take with me. For an 18 year-old girl who had moved from a small town in Shropshire, this was terrifying.
Moving away from home to a place you don’t know with strangers is hard enough, but when you’re a woman you have the fear of sexual vulnerability on top of that. What annoys me is that universities and schools seem to live the mantra of cure and not prevention, so instead of educating men not to rape, they punish them when they are caught and create an environment of fear for their female students. It’s about time this changed, because it’s long overdue.