The "LAD" culture and sexism in England

Its very common to hear someone being called a LAD among people my age and slightly older. It seems to be the new trend among middle class male teenagers, and is often used to justify sexist and misogynistic behavior. It is a prime example of how the UK is still rife with sexism and homophobia, among other forms of discrimination.

One source in particular comes from the Facebook page "The Lad Bible", which while it contains some material that is purely satirical, a large proportion of it actively encourages the objectifying and discrimination of women. While scrolling through their website here are some examples I found...

"Thou shall never watch such programs as 'The Only Way Is Essex' or 'Made In Chelsea', as those programs are made for our wenches."

"Thou shall host FIFA tournaments with the LADpack, while thy WENCH makes sandwiches and gets the beers from the fridge"

 "Thou must never enter the kitchen, as this is the women's resting place."

You get the idea...

While this may seem like a bit of harmless fun or "banter" to some, it is this sort of misogyny that leads to harassment of women and women feeling like they ought to submit and allow this sort of thing to go on without questioning it. It is exactly this sort of thing that leads to much worse things such as victim blaming in rape cases, as has been demonstrated even by senior judges in court in recent days.

It is evident that many people think that sexism is no longer a problem in western culture, however these issues highlight as being just as big a problem as ever, and while legislation may be in place to try and prevent these things it will not achieve anything while people attitudes remain the same. The Amanda Todd case is a good example of this, with people saying a girl who committed suicide was better of dead because she was a slut etc. I was shocked at how many people I know and consider to be a part of the cause i'm arguing for took place in this "slut shaming", showing the problem is even more widespread than many perceive.

Another aspect of this issue I find baffling is how from such a young age children are exposed to this sort of stereotyping in the media, in everything from TV adverts for soft drinks to in music videos marketed towards 13 and 14 year old children. The female body is used to sell pretty much everything now. This clip from Bill Hicks sums it up quite nicely

This objectifying works in two ways. It not only ends up with men believing it is alright to objectify women, but also leads to women objectifying themselves and subjecting themselves to this sort of treatment, and feeling like they have an obligation to please men and to look and act a certain way, whether they are doing it consciously or not.

This is a problem that no amount of legislation will be able to change. The only way to stop this discrimination is by changing people attitudes, which it seems, is much harder than it ought to be...