LADS AREN’T US

The Oxford University Rugby Football Club recently launched GoodLad, a campaign seeking to tackle ‘laddism’ as part of wider OUSU initiative ‘It Happens Here’.

Rugby boys to be on their best behaviour.

Both campaigns arose out of the findings of a March 2013 NUS report, ‘That’s what she said: Women students’ experiences of lad culture in higher education’. The survey found that 50% of university students had encountered “prevailing sexism, ‘laddism’ and a culture of harassment”, according to the NUS website.

WomCam Committee member Anna Bradshaw, who attended the NUS Conference in York last month where this topic was hotly discussed, was pleased to hear of the Rugby Club’s initiative: “I’m so excited that the ‘It Happens Here’ campaign is working with the Rugby Club on GoodLad’ – it shows that different leaders in the Oxford Uni community are stepping up to help tackle the issue.”

Lad culture on the way out… apparently

‘Lad culture’ has become practically synonymous with men’s sports, as well as alcohol-fuelled social events, such as crew dates.  OURFC have pledged to tackle this problem head on within their ranks. However, students have registered concern as to how effective GoodLad will be in terms of targeting uni-wide ‘laddism’.

Jeremy Stothart, a member of Wadham’s league-winning football team spoke to the Tab this evening about his reaction to the news: “I think it’s important that the GoodLad initiative is extended from the blues to college level sport. The males might be slightly less alpha, but lad culture can still be dominant.”