UniLad website is no laughing matter

_“If the girl you’ve taken for a drink won’t ‘spread for your head’, think about this statistic: 81 per cent of rape cases go unreported… That seems to be fairly good odds.”_

Now, what kind of person would say something like that? Surprisingly, not a serial rapist, but an enlightened bunch of chaps who until earlier this week ran the website ‘UniLad’. At least the article, entitled ‘Sexual Mathematics’ remembered to state “UniLad does not condone rape without saying ‘surprise’.” The website was taken down by its resident ‘Lads’ after they belatedly reached the conclusion that publishing articles about the hilarity of rape might have “caused some distress.”

Whilst I am primarily offended by this as a sickening incitement to assault vulnerable female students, I am also pretty concerned with how downright unfunny it is. Sadly, this failed humour runs through the entire website, which offers advice and ‘truths’ about women, purporting to be “the No. 1 university student lad’s magazine and guide to getting laid.”

Lads, it’s not funny if no-one is laughing.

When the rape conviction rate in the UK stands at an appallingly low 6 per cent, and with up to 95 per cent of victims not reporting attacks at all, this kind of ‘banter’ is not only wholly inappropriate but dangerous.

Perhaps the most disgusting part was UniLad’s comment to one Twitter user, Sarah McAlpine, who dared to question the gaiety of the article. For her troubles she received the sympathetic response “Are you a dyke?”, followed by a subsequent tweet gloating that “the fact you’re getting very defensive suggests you are one. It’s all coming together now.”
A quick scroll through their Twitter page finds such comments as “The bum rape scene in girl with dragon tattoo is brutal. Still gave me a semi tho.” and “Thou must slap thy wench if she does not pick the iron in a game of Monopoly #LAD”. Clearly, the rape comment was no aberration.

The worst part? 70,000 Facebook users and 2,000 Twitterers find such trash sufficiently entertaining to like and follow it. That their website has been taken down (at least for now) hopefully means UniLad have had a late epiphany that such ‘jokes’ are fundamentally wrong; no university student should be proud to dish out such homophobic and misogynistic abuse, nor breezily condone a culture which insufficiently challenges rape.

It is extremely worrying that such jokes are being told when 1 in 7 female students will be a victim of sexual assault or violence while at university or college. NUS’ ‘Hidden Marks’ survey found that although a sickeningly high 14 per cent had suffered serious sexual assault, only 10 per cent had reported it, and just 4 per cent felt able to tell their institution. The main reason for not talking about such assaults was that they felt ashamed or embarrassed, but almost half did not report the assault because they thought they would be blamed for what had happened to them.

Websites like UniLad only serve to exacerbate this. Whilst I’m certain that those who spend their time writing such repellent posts would never actually sexually assault other students, they are giving currency to a way of thinking that places the blame for assault on the victim. That they aim their content at male university students also becomes more of a concern when 60 per cent of sexual attacks on female university students are conducted by their male peers. Finally, their obsession with how the ‘slags’ are dressed is also reminiscent of the remarks made by Constable Michael Sanguinetti in January 2011, and we all know how that ended.

I would also like to take the opportunity to consider the Unilads at Warwick. Sadly, they do exist, as demonstrated by some of the increasingly sick contributions on Overheard at Warwick. In my first week I was exposed to one particularly unsavoury individual who thought it would be a sweet bonding exercise to write down the names of all the girls in our hall in order of bang-ability, and then attach it to the fridge for all to see.

If I had my way, men who talk about women in a manner reminiscent of a sex offender should never have the opportunity to kiss a woman, let alone “Doggy-style her head into the wall attempting to knock some sense into her.” Trivialising sex crimes is neither funny nor sexy, and misogyny dressed up as banter is still misogyny.

Though maybe I should lighten up; I’m only a UniSlut after all.