Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Last week a friend of mine stumbled across an article in The Independent whilst doing some research for a debate. After beckoning a few people over to read said article, we all shared in her shock and disgust.
The article was centred around lad culture or ‘laddism’ at higher education institutes within the UK, with first-hand accounts of the casual sexism that women had experienced while at university from their fellow students. The sheer amount and scale of sexism at prestigious universities was astounding.
After reading it, I looked a little harder at the ‘laddism’ that I saw in the world around me. This made me realise that amongst my generation, casual sexism is fairly prevalent.
We are surrounded by internet memes and punchlines that contain various phrases such as: ‘get back in the kitchen’ and ‘make me a sandwich’ most of which is highly offensive; however, it seems if said in a light-hearted manner, nobody bats an eyelid.
If it seems as if someone doesn’t really mean what they are saying, then it is passed off as mere poor-taste humour or ‘banter’, which has now become a word that I hold general disdain for.
Yet, to what extent does this ‘banter’ begin to sink in? It seems to me that if one gets away with casual sexism, then people will inadvertently begin to believe it.
