Personally I think it's a huge shame lad culture and rape culture have such a thin line with sexual harassment leading to a blur in these lines. I think most 'lads' are great guys and really need to reinvent what being a lad means and redefine the actions rewarding you lad points.
In a generation where we are so liberal about what it means to be a man and a woman, a great thing meaning self expression and less forced roles, it is tricky to identify yourself and this has created a reaction.
Some young males really want some set of rules to identify how to be a man, and why should they not? Girls need these too. But I think it is a human issue... The rules should be respect, tolerance and kindness. I think being a lad should be about having fun, a reaction to the stressy recession based world outside. University and alcohol go hand in hand with this escapism so it's not much of a surprise that uni lads are such a big thing at the moment. Sports teams and heavy drinking seem to be our generations way of both asserting dominance and gaining respect and loyalty from a pack. It is only natural. But there is a darker side.
Humour and entertainment has always got some participants who vary whether their material becomes offensive and rude or just funny... Often this depends on the audience too.
I want to explore other peoples opinions on this topic as my own experience and my peers are probably some of the most accurate as we are living in the midst of Lad Culture.
I have put up a fb status asking for anyone's opinions and I plan to write a questionnaire that may get some better and more easily organised quantitive results.
I have been researching online a lot because as this is a culture happening now it is not something to be found in many historical books... However I am sure there are some secondary research approaches I can use such as magazine articles and the past history of boys/men/lads (have things really got any worse?)
I am collecting images and putting them on Pinterest as there is such a grand scale it would be hard to scroll through on this blog post:
As a young girl living in Britain it is totally normal to experience sexual harassment vocally or physically and it can vary widely on a scale. We know it doesn't feel right... It makes us uncomfortable however there are no strict lines drawn in our society about what is or isn't allowed. The laws say a different thing:
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