#SolentShoutBack

Last week your VP Engagement launched a campaign to combat lad culture on campus and raise awareness of the damaging behaviour surrounding it.

As it stands, the current gender ratio for Solent University is 42% female to 58% male, and the rise of sites and pages such as ‘Lad Bible’ and ‘UniLad’ unfortunately puts lad culture in full swing. Not only this, but while the night time economy continues to not take sexual harassment seriously, women continue to be at risk of sexual harassment and violence

The NUS are currently leading a national campaign in the wake of their 2013 report ‘That’s What She Said; women students experiences of lad culture in higher education’. Since then they have been making lots of noise on the need to tackle this kind of behaviour. Research has shown that alongside advocating sexist ideas, lad culture also endorses a range of discriminatory views on classism, racism and homophobia, all in the name of banter.

To tackle lad culture on campus and to raise awareness of this sort of behaviour, we are aiming to achieve the following:

·         Lobby the night time economy to have zero tolerance on sexual harassment

·         Get staff and students to sign a zero tolerance on sexual harassment pledge

·         Raise awareness of Women’s stories, culminating in a symposium

·         To host FREE self-defence classes for self-defining females only

Our responses so far have been overwhelmingly positive and show a real need for the campaign, but there have also been responses which suggest the campaign may take something away from men. It doesn’t. Lad culture is about tackling the culture, not any specific gender. As a union we do not aim to restrict men’s rights, but to end the discriminatory views on women and create a safer and more inclusive environment for both men and women.

For more information and to show your support, come and speak to your VP Engagement tomorrow between 10am to 4pm, or alternatively email suengagement@solent.ac.uk.