A report into lad culture at university has revealed half of students have experienced "prevailing sexism, laddism and a culture of harassment", with some even dropping out as a result.
Sexual harassment and violence were found to be "very much related" to lad culture and included verbal and physical harassment, as well as sexual molestation. The report, published by the National Union of Students (NUS), also found "Groping in nightclubs was viewed by some as part of a ‘normal’ night out."
"Lad mentality" was found to be particularly prevalent in sport, centring around banter which was described as "often sexist, misogynist and homophobic". In sports and other extra-curricular activities, there were reports of sexism transgressing into "sexual harassment and humiliation".
One student, who responded to the NUS survey said: "“It was the rugby night initiation and they stood on either side of the pavement so you had to walk through them, they were creating like a bridge thing with their hands, and they started shouting really loudly, in the main street, ‘U.G.L.Y. – she’s ugly, she’s ugly’ and I was just stood there.
"I was on the phone, I just didn’t expect it, and maybe if I had been dressed like I was today, but I was dressed up, and maybe that’s what they had to do, pick out the girl who was on her own, but there was a whole group of them, of rugby lads shouting it on the main street, and it was mortifying.
"Some of them then saw I was a bit upset or taken aback as I was on the phone and so one of them was like ‘ah it’s just a joke’ and I was like ‘well it’s not a joke, because you just
humiliated me on a night out when there’s loads of students about’… and I was actually quite upset by it because it really caught me off guard and I wasn’t expecting it, I wouldn’t say I get upset very much but I literally ran off… it ruined my night, I went home after that.”
Nights out were described as key spaces which lad culture was evident, with even nightclub promoters engaging in the culture as part of their business model to attract customers.
In a recent interview with The Huffington Post UK, the NUS' women's officer Kelley Temple voiced her concerns about the prominence of lad culture on campus.
"If men can't grope women in clubs, they're more likely to progress onto rape," she was once told by a male student council officer. She blamed universities for not taking sexism seriously enough, adding: "Because of the success of a lot of feminists, it's become a lot acceptable to become openly sexist. But it hasn't disappeared, it hasn't gone away, it just manifests itself so it becomes a lot more covert and it exists under different guises and forms.
"One of those forms is "banter". What that is, when you try and apply humour you can say 'Oh but it's just ironic, I don't really mean this'."
The online magazine UniLad is often used as an example of the often misogynist culture. The student publication was forced to pull an article in 2012, which joked: "If the girl you've taken for a drink... won't 'spread for your head', think about this mathematical statistic: 85% of rape cases go unreported. That seems to be fairly good odds. Uni Lad does not condone rape without saying 'surprise'."
essentially my mate and I got sexually assaulted on the dancefloor of the 'Dome 2' nightclub by a group of randy dinnerladies...
