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How do we defeat the ‘dark side’? Analysing a call to tackle lad culture at a UK university

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posted on 2023-08-30, 17:02 authored by Craig Owen
Extensive feminist critique of lad culture has raised serious concerns about its role in the sexualisation and objectification of women; its association with ‘pack-like’ boisterous behaviour and pressured heavy drinking of alcohol; and its use of banter, irony and infantile humour to provide a protective shield for sexist and homophobic practices. These concerns have culminated in the National Union of Students calling for lad culture to be tackled on university campuses in the UK. This paper analyses how the call to tackle lad culture was represented in a student newspaper and made sense of by groups of male students at one university in Southern England. The findings identify three interpretative repertoires, one aligned with feminist critiques, with lad culture constructed as a series of harmful and unacceptable social practices; the other two, critical of feminist-aligned critiques, deployed rhetorical strategies to distinguish a ‘light’ side of lad culture from a ‘dark’ side, and disavow the ‘dark’ side by claiming it was performed by individual ‘bad people’. This paper recommends future campaigns address these multiple repertoires together in one, non-judgemental debate space. This will include the acknowledgement of broader definitions of lad culture, and the facilitation of ongoing student debate about the ‘light’ and ‘dark’ sides of lad culture, and the ‘grey areas’ in-between.

History

Refereed

  • Yes

Volume

46

Issue number

3

Page range

653-669

Publication title

British Educational Research Journal

ISSN

1469-3518

Publisher

Wiley

File version

  • Accepted version

Language

  • eng

Legacy posted date

2020-03-12

Legacy creation date

2020-03-12

Legacy Faculty/School/Department

Faculty of Science & Engineering

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