UniLad (temporarily closed down but due a relaunch at the end of the month) is an online magazine aimed at Uni lads. It turns the neanderthal thinking of lads into a handy site for young men attending universities. I’d say it’s a mix between Nuts type of magazine and the contents of my God Daughter’s nappy after eating too much potato.
You can spot all the usual cocky laddish characters from uni on this mag; BanterLad, BoozeBoy, LaydeezMan, IdiotBoy… If you bumped into UniLad, he’d be the awkwardly insecure loud-mouth, not only stinking of Lynx Africa, but Desperation, too.
…but that’d be in real life.
On the internet, however, he is in a position to influence and convince young, impressionable men about who he is, what is socially ‘acceptable’ and what is ‘normal’ or not.
The dot com, itself, boasts a mix of memes, boobs, clever Photoshopping and, erm, ‘engaging’ articles. It aims to make fun of disabled people, promotes sexual relations with minors, encourages illegal voyeurism, and even celebrates date rape all in the name of ‘banter’ wahey! …and it seems 70,000+ males around UK also have this love of ‘banter’ as they’ve joined the Facebook page, and 2000+ follow them on Twitter. Wow!
So, what has got the Twitterati so angry, you ask? Even after reading what this website consists of? In the article published on the online magazine titled ‘Sexual Mathematics’ – work of genius, I’d say(!) – 75% of women are called sluts. Yes… 75% of people who are female will automatically sleep with anyone, especially a UniLad.
Lads are also warned that if they happen to bump into a woman who isn’t a slut and does not want to jump into bed with them (shock horror!) there’s a statistic that will help them.
“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 ends with a disclaimer… Just in case any of the thousands of readers did actually attempt rape.
Uni Lad does not condone rape without saying, “Surprise”
Lovely!
Shortly after the internet reacted, UniLad posted some sort of an apology on Facebook and took the article down…
What followed, showcased the effects of a culture where guys at university are encouraged to throw around threats of violence and rape.
This is another case of childish boys thinking up another way to have an ‘I have a Penis’ contest, where you can only win by being absolutely disgusting and horrific to women.
I spent a part of today and yesterday going through Uni Lad Mag Evidence which has compiled screenshots of the now offline website. There are horrific articles up there. Calling women everything from slags, wenches, meddley of minge, hoe, bitch etc etc… Talking about how we ‘love being pounded so hard, we lose consciousness’…
There’s an article which dehumanises disabled children and basically describes them as scum of the earth! …basically this website condenses all that is wrong and evil with the world, and passes it off as a guide to university.
The 70,000+ strong army on FB were quick to lash out anyone who commented on their page. Apparently, anyone who does not share their views and opinions are butch dykes, gays, or have a small penis. We are all labelled as man-hating feminists. Seriously?!
No, we don’t hate men. We know men are capable or so much more than the drivel that is on the website and FB page. Maybe, it’s because you’re promoting rape, abuse…paedophilia?! Maybe that’s why you’re on the receiving end of our anger and frustration?
…and that’s not the worst of it.
Last night, ‘Shell’, a commenter on the FB page, had been threatened with rape and murder, which she has reported to the police. Ok, so this threat wasn’t made by any of the UniLad writers (yes, there’s more than one), it was made by a fan… But isn’t that worse?
With a Facebook page acting as a forum for more than 70,000 fans to engage in hate speech against women, how can you be sure that these aren’t men who live on your street, or work with you, or even live in your student halls?!
These men are taking what’s written and believing that it’s true. That a girl in her first year of uni at fresher’s week will be ‘vulnerable’ and easy to ‘bosh’. We’re still living in a culture where women are still seen as objects and young lads are still being taught that it’s ok to tell girls to ‘get in the kitchen and make sammiches’… Why?! …and let me just repeat, a woman was threatened with rape and murder, for complaining. Rape. and. Murder. for something like complaining about the contents of the mag.
I wonder how many of those men that have joined the FB page or follow UniLad on twitter believe that it’s OK to threaten people with murder… I wonder how many believe rape is OK if she’s drunk and can’t really tell what’s going on. We already know far too many of these men think it’s funny to joke about rape. They call it ‘banter’, I call it stupid.
All of this so called ‘banter’ helps trivialise rape, which eventually leads to less convictions BECAUSE people slowly start to get accustomed to the idea that rape is funny, and that it’s not so serious.
Not so serious?! Say wha?! Rape involves someone taking total control over your body, invading your personal space, making you feel like crap, and abusing you physically and emotionally… and that’s only my assumptions of what it feels like to be raped. The reality, of course, is much worse.
I still can’t believe that although stats say that over 10% of women will be raped or sexually assaulted at uni, there’s still websites like these (with a huge following) that perpetuate rape culture further… and that they’re endorsed by things like Beach Break Live (a HUGE student event).
We’re meant to be a civilised society, where people believe they have equal rights. How can this be so, if we have young men growing up to believe that they can do as they please, grab the arse cheeks of a stranger passing, and if they feel like rape someone.
How can we have people even thinking that these things are possible, or even acceptable?!
I understand that it may seem cliché that women are crying over being called bitches and sluts, yet again… But, to think that we’re living in a society where thousands of men have that attitude towards us? How are we meant to feel?
How is this different to any of the so called backwards cultures around the world that “oppress their women”..?
Treating a human being as anything less than a human being is disgusting. I can’t believe it’s still happening in a country that I live in, in places of education! How do universities contribute to society these days? They provide a a place to cultivate binge drinkers, misogynists and people who feel they are entitled to the world because they have a student loan and an overdraft.
Ok, that was harsh of me. I love uni; it has helped me become a better person, so I shouldn’t go around and tarnish the institute of higher education just because of this stupid UniLad business. When UniLad relaunches (in less than a fortnight) it sure as hell won’t be a website I’d want to browse. As I would say to any child who displays hateful behaviour, I’ll say it here “It is not acceptable.”
It’s not banter. It’s not remotely funny. These Lads that you have created won’t do anything for us to progress as society. UniLad can take its rape culture and banter, throw it away, and then get on with their lives.
Dahl http://sustainabilityproject22.wordpress.com
Never read or heard of this before.
“I test rape alarms” – had to laugh at that one. Clever.
“The bum rape scene in girl with dragon tattoo is brutal. Still gave me a semi tho.”
Me too.
Doesn’t mean I will go out and do it.
Unsure where I stand on this.
Whilst a part of me wants to agree with you and say yeh there may be one or two who will take this literally and go too far… It does read like the usual bloke-ish humour you will see/read/hear all over the place.
There will always be those who get offended.
I dont think it trivialises rape.
I do think some of it is funny.
I can understand the sensitivities of some of the women on there. Victims of ANY crime will feel the same if the issue was the object of ridicule and laughter somewhere.
If you want to rage against women being seen as objects or their soul purpose being the sexual gratification of men, you need to start a lot earlier and far lower down than an online lads mag.
The media, the fashion industry, makeup for kids, padded bra’s for young girls etc etc. All of that trivialises and objectifies women. Why the anger at a magazine?
You think those 70,000 readers are all rapists?
I know the reported crime rates dont reflect the reality and a lot of crime goes unreported… but 70,000??
When I was a wee nipper… getting hold of porn was hard work. The odd magazine here or there, page 3 in the sun. Quick peek at a vhs video perhaps.
Todays kids have smartphones with instant access to thousands of sites and video’s. THEY are the ones who will grow up thinking women can just be taken for pleasure. Or at least more of them will. Rage against the phone companies who dont have stringent checks and filters. Rage against the ISP’s who dont do the same.
Perhaps even rage against the parents who allow young children access to all this, who buy the makeup, who buy the clothes, who dont instill the correct values, who dress the girls in nothing but pink. The media perhaps, who tell parents little Johnny has to have all this or they’re bad parents.
Quite frankly, you’re barking up the wrong tree.
Bra burning wench.
Well, well, well… Unilad is back up and running!
http://unilad.com