Sheffield Against Sexual Harassment is trying to get zero-tolerance policies in place in clubs and bars
“I think when you talk one-on-one with people, they know it’s a problem,” Olivia Blake tells me in Sheffield University’s student union. Unfortunately it’s not so easy to bring up sexual harassment when faced with a group of ‘lads’.
Misogyny is not a new problem, but it seems to have reared its ugly head in new and uncomfortable ways in the student communities we live in. When we take the leap into higher education, like thousands of young people have done in recent months, one thing we take for granted is that we are able to feel safe on our campuses, in our student unions, lectures and nightclubs. At the risk of sounding alarmist, this may no longer be the case.
In the last year alone the evidence has begun to stack up. A report by the National Union of Students found around 50% of the students it questioned thought that groping in bars and clubs as a regular occurrence. Earlier this year the University of Warwick faced media controversy when their student union president, Nick Swain, was seen in a YouTube video unhooking a female student’s bra in public. The act was accompanied by a chant of “Get your tits out”. One commenter on the video describes the outrage this sparked as “much ado about nothing.”
When I speak to her, Olivia Blake, a member of the Sheffield Against Sexual Harassment (SASH) group, recounts a first-hand experience of sexual harassment: “I was speaking to my friend out on a social, I said I couldn’t be there and he asked, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘I’ve walked across the room, and if you put a sticker on me every time a man touched me I’d be covered head to toe.’” This is sexual harassment, it is not just lads being lads.
The ‘lad culture’ that seems to have set in at our country’s universities seems to think nothing of chanting sexist and racist songs on a public bus, or even the distressing practice known as slut dumping. In fact, these sorts of things might even be considered a ‘badge of honour’.
SASH is a new student campaign that tackles the very real problem of harassment that many students, female and male, are currently having to live with. Blake is a PhD student who has been at the University of Sheffield since 2008 and has witnessed a creeping increase in instances of sexual harassment since then. The new campaign was born after one meeting of a different society unexpectedly turned into a discussion about the problem – and nearly everyone had an experience.
Longer term plans could include asking bars and clubs to sign up to a zero tolerance policy to sexual harassment
SASH is a joint effort between students from the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University. Initial plans are for a poster campaign in university and nightclub toilets, highlighting the zero tolerance policy to sexual harassment from both student unions. Longer term plans are less set in stone, but could include asking bars and clubs to sign up to zero tolerance, too.
“We also want to make sure bouncers are well trained and know that this type of behaviour is not the fault of the person who complains about it,” says Olivia. This kind of attitude is a problem and can often discourage people from reporting inappropriate behaviour for fear of being branded troublemakers. Other plans include an effort to have consent workshops for representatives of student societies and sports clubs.
So far Sheffield’s student community has been receptive to the issues raised by SASH, and the group can boast both men and women amongst its members. “I think people have recognised the problem,” says Blake.
Lad culture and sexual harassment will not disappear overnight – the problem is a national one, not exclusive to Sheffield – but it is clear, from the number of people who have joined SASH already, that the will is there to change attitudes. The closure of controversial website unilad.com suggests students are becoming more vocal about the kinds of attitudes that trivialise groping and harassment.
As for Olivia Blake and SASH, the group have certainly sparked a debate amongst students on how to treat the opposite sex, regardless of your own gender.
Featured image: OnyskoPhotography via Flickr
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