Female students face a wave of misogyny in British universities

The shocking sexism displayed in a video of Stirling University men's hockey team is a stark example of the misogyny women students are experiencing in the name of 'banter'

This week, a video of the men's hockey team at the University of Stirling appeared on YouTube, showing the male students on a packed bus, engaged in a shouted chant. The chant, filmed on a mobile phone, begins: "I used to work in Chicago, in a department store …" and becomes increasingly misogynistic, racist and offensive as the journey progresses. Now the video has been viewed tens of thousands of times online, the University says it has launched an investigation.

But this video represents so much more than a single, isolated incident. In just two horribly uncomfortable minutes, it sums up the reality of what female students are facing up and down the country – a reality that isn't going away.

It was striking how recognisable many aspects of the situation were. The bravado and pack culture of the "lads" shouting their song regardless of the feelings of the many other, clearly uncomfortable, people on the bus. The young woman in the forefront of the shot who sits tight lipped, checking over her shoulder now and then, evoking an all-too-familiar sense of trapped, fearful tension. The student union officer who has now apologised , and was not involved in the chanting, but can be seen walking away at the beginning of the video rather than making any attempt to challenge the misogynistic behaviour. The passive bystander.

Then there are the lines from the song itself, each evoking an aspect of student sexism that might sound shocking to some, but will be wearily familiar to so many young women.

The idea that sexually assaulting a woman by groping her without her consent is a big joke: "A lady came into the store one day, asking for some material … felt, she got."

The gleeful belittling of women in sexual encounters: "A lady came into the store one day, asking for an orgasm … who gives a fuck what she got?"

The nasty combination of sexism and racism: "A lady came into the store one day, asking for an oriental-looking device … my Jap's eye she got."

And, finally, the joyful abandon with which painful realities are turned into a great big, "banterous" joke at women's expense: "A lady came into the store one day, asking for a lady train … a miscarriage she got."

This is not a one off. This is not even unusual. In the last month alone, the Everyday Sexism Project has received more than 100 reports of similar incidents from students at universities up and down the country. It is becoming the background noise to their education. And many of these reports reflect exactly the same attitudes that emerge in the Stirling video. The message is loud and clear: sexism and sexual violence is a joke, and woe betide you if you dare to object, you frigid, uptight bitch:

"The other day in class at university, I was sitting as the only girl in a group of 20-year-old guys, and they started making jokes about how they were going to rape girls after their night out later on … I was really angry, but felt like they wouldn't listen to me if I said something about it... or tell me to lighten up."

"I was walking from my university accommodation to the club on campus when two guys started walking next to me. They asked if I was going to the club and I said: 'Yes I'm meeting my friends there.' They then asked if I wanted some 'action' before I got there and one of them put their arm right round me so I couldn't pull away. I said: 'No thank you.' . They said it was OK they could still do something to me if they wanted because it's not rape if the woman's wearing socks."

"Getting on the bus at uni – three male students thought it was acceptable to make loud and very rude comments about my body and how I dressed. When I challenged them they said that it was 'just banter' and 'lads having a laugh'. Very uncomfortable bus ride – rest of the bus just sat in silence with no one supporting me. How is this still acceptable?"

"I'm 16 and in my last year of school. Constantly the guys (and girls) in my friendship circle make sexist remarks. Most of the time they don't realise they're being offensive, most of the time it's just 'banter'. For example, the other day my male friend said to me if I wear shorts to this Halloween party he will 'rape me, oh but it won't be rape because I will like it'. I responded telling him you shouldn't say things like that and I got called uptight … What is wrong with the world so that this is deemed OK? I am scared of going to university when I am older. Not because of exam stress but because of the horror stories I have heard from friends and family. The horror stories of girls that have been subjected to assault for 'banter'. I am scared. I am actually scared of being a female."

We urgently need to listen to these young women's voices. These are just some of the stories we have received in in the past month alone. Though individual institutions are dealing well with events in some cases, we need to step back and see the bigger picture here. Until we do, and until this wave of violent misogyny is recognised as an urgent nationwide problem by University heads, the hundreds of the reports we receive from young women will continue to end in that same, bewildered question – how is this still acceptable?

(Source: The Guardian)