TW: This article mentions sexual harassment and rape. Reader discretion advised.
Last week, as students prepared to return to their second-homes, masks and hand sanitisers purchased in bulk, recipes saved to phones, and lost stationery finally found, a Freshers’ group chat was revealed. Exposed on a Durham University Facebook page, one brave female fresher had finally had enough. Enough of the misogyny, toxicity and sexual assault ‘jokes’ that are being exchanged between strangers online. Enough of the toxic culture that has become so pervasive at universities, Durham in particular, and enough of the threats to her, and so many other students’, safety.
‘Lad culture’, misogyny and rape jokes should be a thing of the past. Women should feel safe entering a university environment for the first time, not worried about their drinks being spiked and challenges between boys of who can sleep with the most (or poorest) girls. No woman should enter this stage of her life scared. What’s more worrying, however, is that it seems nothing is being done.
From a Durham student’s perspective, this group chat isn’t that surprising. Which is surprising in itself. The fact that this culture exists at all, never mind on such a prevalent scale, is disgusting. Members of far-right societies at Durham had previously made similar comments on the same Facebook group only a few months ago, and it was clear they were not reprimanded. This was a huge oversight not just in terms of retribution but, more importantly, regarding the safety of others; the victims. Given previous events, is it really a shock that it’s happening all over again?
“The lack of remorse, the lack of awareness, and the lack of respect for women.”
Perhaps what is more disturbing are some of the comments that have been made in response to the leaked messages. The defences against such behaviour. The lack of remorse, the lack of awareness, and the lack of respect for women.
No university should put their female students at risk. It should not take a girl to be raped before action is taken. Yet, this is apparently all there is to it.
Durham, like so many other universities, fails to acknowledge that something is amiss in messages like those exposed.. They fail to protect their students and instead, only increase the fear that so many already feel on nights-out, while walking home, and even in their own halls.
“At what point do we admit that ‘lad culture’ has simply gone too far and it’s time to change?”
If clear screenshots with names are exposed, and that still isn’t enough for action to be taken, then what is? At what point do we admit that ‘lad culture’ has simply gone too far and it’s time to change? Even then, how can these virulent narratives be rewritten?
What is most shocking about the screenshots revealed is that these boys are incoming first-year students. They’re replying to strangers. They don’t even have the excuse of peer pressure to fall back on, because they don’t know these other boys yet. Staying silent seems cowardly, and it is in some ways, but the active facilitation of spreading such sexist, racist and homophobic comments is far worse.
It’s no surprise female students are so wary of university. According to research conducted by NUS Women’s Campaign, 75% of students claim to have experienced at least one form of sexual assault. And this will only continue, if words and actions such as those exposed in the Durham Freshers’ chat escape punishment.
Meghna Amin
Photo by Scott Hewitt on Unsplash.