"And if the girl you've taken for a drink happens to belong to the '25%' group and won't 'spread for your head', think about this mathematical statistic: 85% of rape cases go unreported."
Guess where that line's from? I'll give you 3 options:
The dialogue from a low rent horror film?
The words of a convinced sex offender?
A lifestyle website run by university students?
If only it was one of the first two. Unfortunately the words come from an article on the 'UniLads' website and were recently removed after a deluge of tweets expressing disgust at the trivialisation of this most serious of crimes. UniLads has quickly become infamous and as more people read their site more and more comments like this are surfacing.
The creators of the website would like us to think that this is a one off, an oversight but it's actually part of a pattern from a site that views women solely as sex objects and slaves commonly referring to women as sluts and wenches and advising their readers how to get what they want from them.
This article wasn't a one off, it was the latest in a long line of grotesque misogyny dressed up as fun.
But there's nothing funny about the fact that we live in a society where women are blamed for the violence committed against them.
The rape conviction rate in the UK is, at 6%, one of the lowest in Europe and that's with less than 20% of rapes ever reported to the police.
A website referring to women as wenches and slags isn't simply the harmless "banter" the writers want us to believe. Just this week the head of the CPS in London has said that jurors preconceptions about women has a negative impact on rape conviction rates. Society fails to take rape seriously enough and we regularly see statistics suggesting that women who flirt, dress provocatively or drink are to blame if they are assaulted. Even those who are trying to help often buy into this blame culture, telling women to change their behaviour to avoid rape, but not reminding men that no means no.
"Violence against women is a serious and current issue on university campuses and it is intensely irresponsible to target their violent misogynistic attitudes at students. NUS' Hidden Marks report revealed that one in seven women students have been the victim of a serious physical or sexual assault and the website's writers should think about that before joking about rape again."
And Hidden marks discovered that the main perpetrators of sexual violence against women students are other students so telling male students they not only have the right to treat women like objects, or property, but holding it up as a norm, even an ideal, is not just stupid it's downright dangerous.
What is deeply concerning is that despite the now removed suggestion that their readers rape women unwilling to have sex with them because their victims are unlikely to report the case to the Police, it seems UniLad have not broken any laws. In that light, we'll be writing to Chief Constable Carmel Napier the Association of Chief Police Officers lead on violence against women to ask her why a website that advocates violent crimes against women is allowed to remain live.
NUS have made our views about the site clear but I'd like to ask the people who run UniLads to respond publicly and explain their editorial policy, their attitude towards women students and exactly why they only realised they should take something advocating rape off their site after a deluge of complaints.
Oh and 'lads', having seen your previous responses, I should make clear, further misogyny, homophobia and brushing it off as a joke will not be an acceptable answer.
Follow Estelle Hart on Twitter: www.twitter.com/estellehart
Contact your local MP, PM, local representative and give them your opinion.
The conviction rate for rape is closer to 60%. It's higher than the conviction rate for murder and assault.
Still, 6% is better for victim politics, isn't it Estelle?
It's around 9-10%. And before you decide that this means 90% of rape victims were lying, consider that 4 times as many prosecutions failed because the CPS sent the wrong evidence than failed because of false allegations.
Even if you look at cases that go to court (only around 28%), only 33% of those result in a rape conviction.
By the way - I'm going to need a citation on that Harman anecdote.
Still, at least we know you didn't do any research, did you Tom?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1257981/Harriet-Harmans-unreliable-statistics-rape-scare-victims.html
Lady Stern, a prison reform campaigner and human rights activist, called in her report for 'an end to the widespread use of misleading rape conviction data - in particular the six per cent conviction rate figure'.
The six per cent figure relates to reported cases. In fact, the conviction rate for those actually charged with rape is nearly two out of three, higher than comparable figures for other violent crime.
Technically, in the UK, we only have that right up to a point. People also have a right (again up to a point) not to be victimised, threatened or belittled. In short, women have the right not to live in fear of rape and not to be treated as targets for male aggression.
We have no right to freedom of speech when it comes to slander, libel or defamation. You cannot legally incite racial or religious hatred. Under section 4 of the current Public Order Act you cannot say something that provokes, or causes others to fear, violence. Rape is an act of violence.
That's not freedom.
Complete freedom of speech comes at the expense of other people's freedoms - in this case the freedom not to experience the threat of rape.
What amazes me the most though is how we aren't getting to the source of the problem: men. Violent, aggressive, and instinctual. Why are there classes for women to defend themselves instead of classes to teach men to stop sexually assaulting women? We do nothing in modern society to curtail men's desires, and yet women are placed with the burden of man's folly.
It's digusting.
Hey, maybe we should teach killers not to kill and robbers not to steal, too...
WHY, oh, WHY did we not think of this before...
If they were posting 'funny' comments on how to make bombs, they would be arrested.
If they were posting 'funny' comments discriminating against disabled people they would be vilified.
Posting 'funny' comments on how to commit sex crimes is simply not acceptable.
Example, a wife says..."if my husband does ___ one more time, I'm going go to kill him".
You hit on the real issue....frat houses exist solely so they have a place to date rape.
They self group.
No woman in her right might would ever set foot in one...but sadly, many do because they want to have a husband who will let them stay home.
That website is live because we are supposed to have something called FREEDOM OF SPEECH.
It is not a crime to take something that is undeniably serious, and make a joke about it.
What happened when Micahel Jackson died? Do people joke about murder? Guns? Pedophiles?
ALL THE TIME. Thats what humans do.
You should stop wasting time reading a comedy website that offends you.
And yes, '"brushing it off as a joke" is acceptable...because thats what it is...a joke.
Jokes have limits to and the reason is offence and disrespect which potentially may come from it. Would you like it if people 'joked' about your mother being a prostitute?
Jokes have no limits.
I'm sorry you find misogyny so acceptable.
Abusive would be considered harassment.
But insulting? You mean the insulted person gets to decide if the other guy is guilty? Feeling insulted is subjective.
But I agree that it would a good way to relearn the lesson of the evils of censorship, though our freedom to express our opinions would probably be gone for at least our lifetimes.