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Abstract

‘Lad Culture’ has been a dominant part of British society and a template for masculinity since the 1990s. A defining feature of ‘Lad Culture’ is the targeting, objectifying and sexualising of women and like everything else in the 21st century, ‘lad culture’ has expanded to online spaces using the internet as a tool for misogyny with websites like UniLad and LadBible. However, the internet has also become a tool for feminist activists attempting to tackle ‘lad culture’ with movements such as #METOO and SlutWalk. Using literature and the research question for this dissertation ‘How is lad culture facilitated and challenged by social media in contemporary Britain?’ this dissertation asks how social media is being used as a tool for misogyny as well as a tool for feminist activism. This dissertation uses universities as a case study for ‘lad culture’ because it is rife on UK campuses and because feminist activism is also fruitful in higher education. This dissertation uses relevant literature on ‘Lad Culture’ and the context in which ‘lad culture’ exists such as ‘raunch culture’ and ‘rape culture’ as well as literature on their existence in higher education. This dissertation also draws on literature about the existence of misogyny online and the feminist activism online that is used to combat it. All literature is analysed from a feminist view point drawing on theories on ‘popular’ feminism and ‘popular’ misogyny before coming to the conclusion that despite the positive change that the internet is being used for it is ultimately become another tool to target women in the context of ‘Lad Culture’.

Course: International Relations and Politics - BA (Hons) - C0694

Date Deposited: 2022-02-17

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13821.html