When the phenomenally popular UK based student website UNILAD was temporarily shut down last month, the internet exploded in a storm of protest – both for and against its closure, in what was an unprecedented debate fuelled by inherent sexism and aggression. Following a post they had published that openly (though ‘jokingly’) condoned rape, the website creators received an onslaught of criticism and protest and had subsequently taken down their site, with a promise to return in a few weeks with some seriously cleaned up material.

The offending article, probably familiar to most of us by now, was published on the website that claims to have 8,000 visitors a day and almost 70,000 fans on their Facebook page. UNILAD’s sterling ‘advice’ for pulling girls at university read:

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.

The article was followed by the disclaimer: “Uni Lad does not condone rape without saying ‘surprise’.”

The comment was ultimately intended as a joke. However offensive, idiotic and upsetting it was, the person who wrote it clearly did so because he mistakenly thought he was being funny. But what does this joke tell us about the culture behind it that makes so many people believe it to be acceptable? Unfortunately, this comment was just one small article on a website that is replete with violent and abusive sexism that is all excused in the name of ‘banter’. One of my personal favourites was the article ‘The Angry Shag’, ending with the sentence: “To finish off, I doggy-style her head into the wall attempting to knock some sense into her.”

The sad part is that websites like UNILAD aren’t the real problem here. This culture of increasingly aggressive and sexist banter isn’t created by them; rather, they are a product of it. We all know people who find this kind of thing funny, our friends and boyfriends probably often laugh along, because this kind of person isn’t immoral or misogynistic like we might like to believe. Instead, this inherently sexist ideology is woven deep into mainstream society and pervades at a disturbing level of acceptability. With the article in question, they may have gone too far – but the real problem is why they were not called up earlier.

Their online apology was met with an enormous protest – mainly from men – comprising of dozens of vitriolic attacks against women. Many claimed that jokes about rape should be seen as an acceptable form of free speech, and the majority of the comments were sexually aggressive and scarily threatening. The responses varied from “Blatantly a lass wrote that” and “Proof that women can’t handle banter” to the even more disturbing “I’ll stab the C**T that reported UNILAD”. Personally I find it hard to see any way in which the latter can be seen as a ‘joke’ – jokes are supposed to be funny, right? Within our society a culture of ‘banter’ has seen jokes about this issue rise within mainstream society, and any female who dares to protest is labeled a ‘dyke’ or told to ‘get back in the kitchen’. And this mindset is so deeply ingrained into our society that it isn’t only men making these comments – one girl commented:

Girls complaining about this article are probably closet lesbians and guys complaining are probably small dicks who can’t even get a girl to look at it.

Is this acceptable? Should we, like the author of the above comment, take it all as a joke and join in? Are we being too sensitive if we don’t find these types of comments funny? Or are these jokes an indication of the troubling culture surrounding rape in this country? In the UK, only a fraction of rape cases are ever reported – as UNILAD so optimistically pointed out – and out of those that are, only 6% of men accused of rape are ever convicted. This means that the UK has one of the lowest conviction rates for rape in Europe, and it is hard to not link this fact to the way that rape just isn’t seen as a serious problem in mainstream culture. Of those that are convicted, the sentencing for such cases often seems shockingly lenient, in comparison to other non-violent crimes.  Ruth Brewer, Vice President at the Liverpool Guild of Students, said:

There is a direct correlation between society’s attitude towards rape and violence towards women and conviction rates for these abhorrent crimes. Reports show that the public perception of rape victims affects the way jurors judged cases in court, resulting in a current conviction rate of just 6%, and with articles like this, it is hardly surprising.

Although, it must be noted that this problem isn’t unique to the UK: indeed, the violation of a woman’s sexual integrity only became a violation of human rights in 2001. That’s only just over ten years ago. In reality, the lack of gravity with which rape is treated is a worldwide issue: though the mainstream culture of a humour so far detached from the issue itself seems to be more unique to our society.

It seems that there is an unquestionable link between this apparently lighthearted banter and the way in which rape crimes aren’t taken seriously in the UK, both in society and the courtroom. And this begs the question, when does this behavior stop being a joke and turn into a threat – because it is a line that is becoming increasingly blurred. It is scary how easily this aggressive and hateful sexism can come to the surface, as a means of oppression, all in the name of a joke. And what does this deep-rooted aggression towards women reflect – from the claims that we can’t handle the ‘joke’, to the blame that is attributed to women in rape cases for dressing provocatively (Slut Walk 2011)? The answer is troubling, and one that won’t go away easily. It is safe to say that, despite what some people may believe, we can’t consider the feminist fight over quite yet. However, with the UNILAD site being taken down for a clean up, and their Facebook page being removed last week, perhaps steps are being taken in the right direction.

Becky Macklin

Image: Yelp.com on Flickr