Just found a very interesting article on http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=656&issue=127 by Judith Orr.
“The transformation of culture in universities in recent years has been dramatic. From the days when sexist posters would have been deemed unacceptable or been ripped down, the images and language used by many campus clubs, bars and societies on posters and advertising are rabidly sexist. “Pimp and ho” club nights abound. There is a celebration of some of the most backward ideas. In Essex University “slave auctions” have been held where women dressed as bunny girls get auctioned to do housework for blokes, all in the name of fundraising. “
“At Sussex University a woman student returning from the library one evening was surrounded and groped by a group of drunk and naked rugby club members. When a campaign was launched to demand the students’ union penalise the club for the behaviour of its members, the union refused citing the importance of forthcoming sporting fixtures to the team.”
“When a woman student took a motion to a students’ union meeting at the London School of Economics to challenge the sale of lads mags in the university shop she faced a rampant mob of male students, mainly from the athletics club. Brandishing page three of the Sun newspaper they drowned her out with wolf whistles, shouts of “Lesbian” and other “insults”. One was asked to leave after he threw a missile at her.”
You would think that universities would be a breeding ground for feminist movements; in fact they were for past generations, however increasingly “feminist” is seem as a dirty word. Many Women see sexualisation as liberating, you may now be able to sleep with whoever you want without fear of pregnancy but that doesn’t stop the objectification of women.
The overt sexualisation of women worries me; it worries me even more that I am myself obviously influenced by society’s perception of women. Like most women I worry about whether my hair/makeup makes me appeal to men, whether I am too fat to be considered attractive. I buy women’s fashion magazines when I know full well they are the propaganda of a society which still sees women as a commodity, only as good as her body. Still I find the present situation fundamentally unacceptable.
Just to make this clear, I am not a man hater, I think women are as much to blame for the situation as men. I think we need to start taking responsibility and own up to the fact we still are not equal. I could reel off figures about pay gaps, the number of female MP’s etc. but you will have probably heard this all before.
Just ask yourself (females or males if you want to!) do you feel that you are treated as an equal by society?
If the answers yes then I think you need to do some of your own research.
If no, then we have something in common.
