0:00:02 > 0:00:08Contains some violent scenes, and strong language and scenes which some viewers may find upsetting from the start.
0:00:08 > 0:00:12So Nadine Dorries. Alone in a hotel, no repercussions...
0:00:12 > 0:00:14I'll abuse you so badly
0:00:14 > 0:00:17your gynaecologist will think you've been in a fucking car crash.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20My views on anything
0:00:20 > 0:00:24are actually irrelevant to the size or shape of my vagina.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28From abuse hurled at women appearing on Question Time
0:00:28 > 0:00:31to bomb threats sent to campaigners
0:00:31 > 0:00:34agitating for more female heroes on banknotes,
0:00:34 > 0:00:37from the sexually explicit portrayal
0:00:37 > 0:00:40of women in pop videos to rape jokes...
0:00:40 > 0:00:42- Anyway, that night she got raped. - LAUGHTER
0:00:42 > 0:00:47..is there a new culture abroad in which men, and it is mainly men,
0:00:47 > 0:00:50seem to think they have the freedom
0:00:50 > 0:00:53and the right to speak about, write about,
0:00:53 > 0:00:57and portray women in a derogatory, even abusive way?
0:00:59 > 0:01:02And is this culture now infecting and polluting
0:01:02 > 0:01:04the lives of school girls?
0:01:04 > 0:01:06If you come home to your mother
0:01:06 > 0:01:08and say there were rape jokes at school,
0:01:08 > 0:01:11a girl was being slut shamed today, somebody was being touched up,
0:01:11 > 0:01:13- would she not be horrified? - I probably wouldn't tell my mum.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16It's just so normal, why would I tell her?
0:01:16 > 0:01:18Do you want a copy of The Female Eunuch?
0:01:18 > 0:01:22The most prominent feminist of her generation didn't see it coming.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25Things have got a lot worse for women since I wrote The Female Eunuch.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28Who thought once you had social media
0:01:28 > 0:01:33they would become this terrible grab bag of loathing of women?
0:01:34 > 0:01:37We need a new analysis.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40So have these sentiments always been lurking?
0:01:40 > 0:01:44Has technology just given them a new, louder voice
0:01:44 > 0:01:48or has something changed men's attitudes to women for the worse?
0:01:48 > 0:01:49I think there is definitely
0:01:49 > 0:01:52a new kind of misogyny developing right now
0:01:52 > 0:01:55and it comes out of a deep sense of resentment
0:01:55 > 0:01:58at growing female power.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02Some people disagree and think women should just calm down
0:02:02 > 0:02:05and stop taking this so seriously.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08After all, we live in a culture
0:02:08 > 0:02:10that can be coarse and vicious to everyone.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13This isn't something which is peculiar to women,
0:02:13 > 0:02:16this is something which is peculiar to the internet.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20I think you have to, to use the sexist term, man up a bit.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23So is that what this is about,
0:02:23 > 0:02:27it's our problem and genuinely women just have to "man up"?
0:02:27 > 0:02:29Or is there something new in the air,
0:02:29 > 0:02:33a visceral misogyny, a kind of dangerous nastiness?
0:02:33 > 0:02:37And if there is, could it have far-reaching consequences?
0:02:52 > 0:02:54Women have so many opportunities today
0:02:54 > 0:02:57that some say feminism has done its job.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02My mother's life was so different to mine.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04I don't think she could comprehend
0:03:04 > 0:03:07the freedom I enjoy as a BBC journalist and presenter.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12Like many, I've benefited from the hard-fought changes
0:03:12 > 0:03:15that have made women equal in the eyes of the law.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20But has achieving real respect for women in society
0:03:20 > 0:03:23been such a smooth process?
0:03:23 > 0:03:28Or are we seeing the latest and most virulent of a series of backlashes?
0:03:28 > 0:03:30# All so we can have a good time, yeah!
0:03:30 > 0:03:34# I'm in here busy looking for the next top model...#
0:03:34 > 0:03:37And right now in our sexually explicit culture,
0:03:37 > 0:03:41are age-old hostilities finding very contemporary forms?
0:03:41 > 0:03:44From pop videos...
0:03:45 > 0:03:47..to advertising...
0:03:47 > 0:03:49..to TV shows.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53Even though you are getting old and you're up the duff,
0:03:53 > 0:03:55I would still smash your back doors in.
0:03:55 > 0:03:56LAUGHTER
0:03:56 > 0:03:59And spunk on your tits. LAUGHTER
0:03:59 > 0:04:03Is what we're seeing sexism, misogyny or liberation?
0:04:04 > 0:04:07Sexism is prejudice or discrimination.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10Misogyny is something altogether darker.
0:04:11 > 0:04:16Misogyny is personalised, sexualised and often violent.
0:04:16 > 0:04:17It is, of course, nothing new,
0:04:17 > 0:04:20but I wonder if it's found a new lease of life.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23In our "anything goes" culture,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26has it become OK to be sexually offensive to women?
0:04:26 > 0:04:31And in the process, has it become harder to recognise misogyny,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34or even as a society to agree when it occurs?
0:04:41 > 0:04:44I'm going to Stirling University to investigate an incident
0:04:44 > 0:04:48that really raises questions about what behaviour towards women
0:04:48 > 0:04:51and language about them is considered socially acceptable
0:04:51 > 0:04:56and whether there is any consensus about it at all.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58WHISTLE
0:04:58 > 0:05:02It's one of the most extreme cases of a string of episodes
0:05:02 > 0:05:07at British Universities in which what's been dismissed as harmless laddism by some
0:05:07 > 0:05:11is to others deeply problematic.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23What was particularly notable about what happened at Stirling with one of the university's sports teams
0:05:23 > 0:05:27was the time and the place of the incident.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31A performance on a bus at 9:30 at night, so it was a public space.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34I want to watch it and apparently it's pretty raucous,
0:05:34 > 0:05:37so as I'm in a public space, I'll put my headphones on.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43The students are singing an updated version of an old drinking song
0:05:43 > 0:05:46and this one is far more explicit
0:05:46 > 0:05:48and sexually aggressive than the original.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11LAUGHTER AND CHEERING
0:06:11 > 0:06:12- GIRL:- Do you know...
0:06:12 > 0:06:16I can just make out some women on the bus asking, "Why is that funny,"
0:06:16 > 0:06:18and commenting that it's scary.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21But the team was just getting warmed up.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38The hockey team's enthusiastic chanting
0:06:38 > 0:06:41has provoked masses of comments online
0:06:41 > 0:06:44and on the streets of Stirling too, dividing opinion.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46"Only university sports teams
0:06:46 > 0:06:49"would appreciate this banter, both male and female."
0:06:49 > 0:06:51"This is very misogynistic.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53"I found the joke about miscarriage particularly sickening."
0:06:55 > 0:06:58It was funny, it was witty. You've got to admit that, it was witty.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01It's kind of shocking it would happen in a public place,
0:07:01 > 0:07:05but I suppose it's reasonable if it's somewhere that the public don't get exposed to it.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07This has got everything from
0:07:07 > 0:07:14this is just hilarious and ironic to it's misogynistic, it's violent towards women.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16It's extraordinary how one single incident
0:07:16 > 0:07:19can be read in so many different ways.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27I got together some students to find out how the same words
0:07:27 > 0:07:32could be just harmless, laddish banter to some like Euan and Katie,
0:07:32 > 0:07:35and so offensive to others like Maria and Miriam,
0:07:35 > 0:07:37who were on the bus that night.
0:07:37 > 0:07:42When you heard those lyrics, what was your reaction? You were there.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45If you actually think about what it means, you know,
0:07:45 > 0:07:47how the whole song is about this woman
0:07:47 > 0:07:49going to the store asking for various everyday items
0:07:49 > 0:07:54and that one time when she does ask for sex, you know, "Who cares?"
0:07:54 > 0:07:56You know, "You're not as valuable.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59"Your thoughts and desires are not as valuable as mine.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02"I'll just give you what I want to give you and you have to take it."
0:08:02 > 0:08:04And what did you think when you saw it?
0:08:04 > 0:08:08I work in a bar, I'm used to guys getting drunk and just being a bit silly,
0:08:08 > 0:08:13but I didn't think it was as bad as everybody was making out at all.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16- I think it's just... They're joking around.- Yeah.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19They're just singing a song, they've all joined in. They don't really mean it.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22A night out is different to how you are during the day
0:08:22 > 0:08:27or like in real life terms at university or at your work place.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30Well, in that case it's quite interesting. Is there a subliminal attitude towards women
0:08:30 > 0:08:33that men don't necessarily want to admit they have?
0:08:33 > 0:08:37But this song isn't a one-off terrible song
0:08:37 > 0:08:41that one group of bad individuals have sung,
0:08:41 > 0:08:46this is...this is a common example of everyday occurrences
0:08:46 > 0:08:51that really just highlight an underlying misogyny.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55How come young people are so split
0:08:55 > 0:08:59about whether offensive words have any meaning or not?
0:09:00 > 0:09:04I was actually at Stirling University in the sexist early '70s.
0:09:05 > 0:09:10And even then this wasn't my experience of higher education.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14However problematic attitudes towards women could be,
0:09:14 > 0:09:18my generation, maybe naively, thought we were leaving them behind.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28And by the late '80s, while sexist and misogynistic views had hardly disappeared,
0:09:28 > 0:09:31popular imagery of the sexes had changed.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33For women it was power suits
0:09:33 > 0:09:36and for men, well, there was the New Man,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39from posters to adverting.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44The men are here as we ask whether the appearance of the New Man
0:09:44 > 0:09:47means an end to the battle of the sexes?
0:09:47 > 0:09:49Just what happened?
0:09:49 > 0:09:52Pull your top up. Let's have 'em out for the lads.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54- CHEERING - Look at them!
0:09:55 > 0:09:58Britpop with the likes of Oasis and Blur
0:09:58 > 0:10:01brought a new tone to popular culture
0:10:01 > 0:10:03and soon there was a magazine to celebrate it.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06MUSIC: "Loaded" by Primal Scream
0:10:06 > 0:10:09In 1994, Loaded burst onto the scene
0:10:09 > 0:10:11with a swagger, a beer can
0:10:11 > 0:10:15and before long, a scantily-clad woman in tow.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20So I wondered what Loaded's longest-serving editor,
0:10:20 > 0:10:22Martin Daubney, now in his 40s,
0:10:22 > 0:10:26made of the culture his magazine helped popularise?
0:10:26 > 0:10:29What lad culture, when it emerged in the '90s,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32I think it just kind of held a mirror to what was out there.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35I think working class white males ostensibly, you know,
0:10:35 > 0:10:41wanted to reject this kind of template they were being told they should live their lives.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43You know, we should all be clean living, doing the hovering,
0:10:43 > 0:10:47this kind of asexual creature that was being forced down our throats.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51And Loaded was kind of a reaction to that, it was two fingers.
0:10:51 > 0:10:57It was, "We don't want to be new men, we want to be old-fashioned, unreconstructed cavemen."
0:10:57 > 0:10:59What was the kind of tone around Loaded at that time?
0:10:59 > 0:11:01Was it, you know, that you were really smart guys
0:11:01 > 0:11:04just being ironic about sexism or what?
0:11:04 > 0:11:06I don't think Loaded ever set out to be sexist.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09We celebrated women, we did, our readers loved women.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13We had interviews with them and... You're smiling, you don't believe me.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16No, I'm smiling, I love the idea that "we celebrated women".
0:11:16 > 0:11:18We celebrated women but not necessarily to talk about
0:11:18 > 0:11:21all the wonderful work they were doing or whatever,
0:11:21 > 0:11:22it was more about their looks.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26We did start to think of the women in the magazine
0:11:26 > 0:11:31as, I guess, objects, sales devices, because they did sell magazines.
0:11:31 > 0:11:33If you put a man on the cover of a men's magazine,
0:11:33 > 0:11:35it was commercial suicide.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39Whatever their intention, lads' mags arguably helped set in train
0:11:39 > 0:11:43the idea that sexism, even misogyny,
0:11:43 > 0:11:47could be rendered harmless with a knowing, ironic wink.
0:11:47 > 0:11:52Making it harder today to distinguish between what's socially acceptable and what's not.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54MUSIC: "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke
0:11:55 > 0:12:022013's biggest and most controversial hit was called, appropriately enough, Blurred Lines,
0:12:02 > 0:12:05infamous for the topless models in its video
0:12:05 > 0:12:08and lyrics described by a reviewer as "kind of rapey".
0:12:08 > 0:12:11# I get these blurred lines
0:12:11 > 0:12:13# I know you want it
0:12:13 > 0:12:14# I know you want it... #
0:12:14 > 0:12:17- Do you find it offensive? - No, I think it's...
0:12:17 > 0:12:22I mean, I understand why some people do, but it doesn't read that everybody should find it offensive.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25You've no concern about the lyrics?
0:12:25 > 0:12:27- Um.- Split your ass and all this stuff?
0:12:27 > 0:12:30I think people are on the whole intelligent enough
0:12:30 > 0:12:34to ascertain the difference between a lyric in a song
0:12:34 > 0:12:38and to actually go out into the real world and to split a girl's ass.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42Even last year's Oscars caused a critical storm
0:12:42 > 0:12:46with their focus on the breasts of the world's most successful actresses.
0:12:46 > 0:12:47# We saw your boobs
0:12:47 > 0:12:49# We saw your boobs
0:12:49 > 0:12:52# In the movie that we saw, we saw your boobs. #
0:12:52 > 0:12:56I think this is different because I don't think that was funny.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00I think there was a collective sense there of people's toes curling.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05And joke T-shirts pushed the boundaries of taste even further.
0:13:07 > 0:13:12- OK, this is on eBay, but it's discontinued now.- Yeah.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14"I'm feeling rapey".
0:13:14 > 0:13:17You know, if you make a joke about rape like this,
0:13:17 > 0:13:20then I think you've got to be more hateful towards women.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23It's not actually delivered in a humorous context, I don't think,
0:13:23 > 0:13:25there's something more insidious.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28- So is that misogyny, not laddism? - Yes, that's misogyny.
0:13:28 > 0:13:29It was never part of our mantra
0:13:29 > 0:13:32to joke about rape or to encourage violence towards women.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35Loaded tried to set a line,
0:13:35 > 0:13:38but the trouble is not everybody wants to stay within the pen.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47But is the legacy of laddism just how do you decide what's funny
0:13:47 > 0:13:51or where to draw the line in a world of postmodern irony?
0:13:53 > 0:13:58And I wonder if, in the confusion, it opened the floodgates to something darker.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05Where better to explore the limits of humour than a comedy gig,
0:14:05 > 0:14:09testing what audiences now want to hear on a good night out.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14- One ticket, please.- Yes, of course. That's- £8. Thank you.
0:14:14 > 0:14:15Cheers.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17Is there any harm in having a laugh?
0:14:17 > 0:14:21Comedy is all about pushing boundaries, even if it is at our expense.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25And if women don't find it funny or even offensive,
0:14:25 > 0:14:30is there any truth in the old accusation it's because women have had a sense of humour bypass?
0:14:31 > 0:14:35Good evening! Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. How are we?!
0:14:35 > 0:14:38I wanted to put some comedy fans on the spot
0:14:38 > 0:14:40at this popular club in Portsmouth.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44What did they make of some of the material doing the rounds
0:14:44 > 0:14:47with hugely successful comedians?
0:14:47 > 0:14:51Jokes about women were once considered old-fashioned
0:14:51 > 0:14:55by "hip" alternative stand-ups, not any more.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58- Same sense of humour? - We'll find out in a minute.
0:14:58 > 0:15:00THEY LAUGH
0:15:00 > 0:15:02- This is going to end in divorce. - Yeah, maybe?
0:15:02 > 0:15:05Thanks for shouting out like a crazy bitch, that's brilliant.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07LAUGHTER
0:15:07 > 0:15:10I'll abuse you so badly your gynaecologist will think
0:15:10 > 0:15:12you've been in a fucking car crash.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16- You don't think he's very funny.- I don't, but I thought that was funny.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20I reckon your pussy's seen more action than fucking Helmand.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23LAUGHTER I don't find him funny, but I don't find it offensive necessarily.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26I don't think they have to go two and two together.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28If he was taking the mickey out of someone
0:15:28 > 0:15:31for colour, creed, whatever it was, that would not be acceptable.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33I play practical jokes on her constantly though.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35I got her so good a few weeks ago.
0:15:35 > 0:15:37I replaced her pepper spray with silly string.
0:15:37 > 0:15:39LAUGHTER
0:15:39 > 0:15:41Anyway, that night she got raped.
0:15:41 > 0:15:47And she called me the next day going, "You son of a bitch!"
0:15:47 > 0:15:50- Funny? Not funny?- No, not at all.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53- Not one bit.- Cringy.- No.- Oh!
0:15:53 > 0:15:54Black sense of humour maybe.
0:15:54 > 0:16:00- In the real world it's not all right but in abstract maybe.- All humour is about misfortune,
0:16:00 > 0:16:03so there's always somebody at the butt of the joke.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05LAUGHTER
0:16:05 > 0:16:10Please welcome to the stage the fantastic Brendon Burns!
0:16:10 > 0:16:13Edinburgh Comedy Award winner, Brendon Burns,
0:16:13 > 0:16:17specifically explores the nature of offence in his work.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19And no group gets a free pass.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22Hello! CHEERING
0:16:22 > 0:16:25Feminists are fucking awesome!
0:16:25 > 0:16:29It's true. They pick up their own cheques and they apologise when they're wrong.
0:16:29 > 0:16:31LAUGHTER
0:16:31 > 0:16:34Oh, you didn't know that was in the fucking deal, did ya?
0:16:34 > 0:16:37You can see pretty young girls going, "Wait! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!"
0:16:37 > 0:16:39I'm sorry, that is the cornerstone of feminism,
0:16:39 > 0:16:41independence and accountability.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44Everything else is just bum-sticker fucking bullshit!
0:16:44 > 0:16:49Look, you're shaking your head. You're going, "No, surely feminism is having my cake and eating it?"
0:16:49 > 0:16:51No! Germaine Greer hates you!
0:16:51 > 0:16:54LAUGHTER
0:16:55 > 0:17:00I was curious to know what he thought about women being comedy's victim.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03Why are you under the impression that women are a sacred cow?
0:17:03 > 0:17:07I think it's...it is about equality.
0:17:07 > 0:17:11I think once you're fair game, then that's when you're truly equal.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14- Fair game for what though? - Humour, a figure of fun.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19I think once you exclude any section of society from having a sense of humour about themselves,
0:17:19 > 0:17:22you exclude them full stop. That's exclusion.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25That's a fucking cock-sucker's laugh you've got there, madam.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27LAUGHTER
0:17:27 > 0:17:30See, she's not denying it!
0:17:30 > 0:17:32HE HACKLES
0:17:32 > 0:17:35That's a laugh born of choking on a stiff one. Is that not...?
0:17:35 > 0:17:41Have you noticed, madam, when you laugh in pubs every guy in the room turns into a meerkat? Just...
0:17:41 > 0:17:44LAUGHTER I bet you see heads going back and everything.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47I wondered whether he thought being in a gig
0:17:47 > 0:17:50gave stand-ups special dispensation.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53Once you're in that space you can say anything
0:17:53 > 0:17:58and it wouldn't be stuff that for example a comedian, not just you, would say outside?
0:17:58 > 0:18:02Yeah, I think so. There's a bit of like...a secret handshake.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04- Hmm.- You know?
0:18:04 > 0:18:08And everyone wants to be let off the hook, going, "Oh, I'm laughing ironically,
0:18:08 > 0:18:11"I'm laughing at the perpetrator, I'm laughing at this or..."
0:18:11 > 0:18:16And the bottom line is you're laughing cos you're surprised. That's all there is to it.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20- LAUGHTER - But why do jokes about women get such a laugh?
0:18:20 > 0:18:23What about jokes where I'm the butt of the joke?
0:18:23 > 0:18:26Either everything's funny or nothing's funny.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28I always love coming here, it's always great to see you.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31Thanks for coming out. My name's Brendon Burns. Good night!
0:18:31 > 0:18:33CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:18:36 > 0:18:39In this brave new world though where nothing is off limits,
0:18:39 > 0:18:43laughing at sexual assault has become commonplace,
0:18:43 > 0:18:47with 2012 being dubbed the year of the rape joke at the Edinburgh Festival.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53But it's not just humour in clubs that's taken a darker turn.
0:18:55 > 0:19:01Or comedians who justify saying the unsayable by arguing that "that's comedy".
0:19:03 > 0:19:06So-called trolls, journalists and even politicians
0:19:06 > 0:19:10have all made controversial remarks that beg the question,
0:19:10 > 0:19:15are their comments sexist, misogynistic or just a bit of a laugh?
0:19:16 > 0:19:19I think all the girls said, "No, none of us clean behind the fridge."
0:19:19 > 0:19:21And I made a joke, "Oh, well, you're all sluts."
0:19:21 > 0:19:23And everybody laughed, including all the women.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26BOTH: # Get your tits out for the lads!
0:19:26 > 0:19:29# Get your tits out for the lads. # LAUGHTER
0:19:29 > 0:19:31Is football full of sportsmen
0:19:31 > 0:19:36who enjoy a little bit of lads' mag humour? Yes, it is.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40Could some women and men be right to have reservations
0:19:40 > 0:19:43about this sort of comedy even in its mildest forms,
0:19:43 > 0:19:47whatever the stated intention of the joke teller?
0:19:47 > 0:19:50- Calm down, dear. Calm down. - LAUGHTER
0:19:50 > 0:19:53"It was meant as a joke and I thought would be taken as a joke."
0:19:57 > 0:20:01To try to find out whether a joke is really just a joke,
0:20:01 > 0:20:03psychologist Dr Thomas Ford
0:20:03 > 0:20:07has been exploring the consequences of sexist humour on behaviour.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11At his university, he got together mixed groups of men,
0:20:11 > 0:20:15some with neutral attitudes to women, the yellow ones,
0:20:15 > 0:20:21some with hostile, sexist attitudes to women, the blue ones.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24We wondered what might happen if a group of guys like this
0:20:24 > 0:20:30are sitting around in a pub and they were to encounter some sexist humour,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34perhaps through a comedian on the TV, or perhaps through some banter
0:20:34 > 0:20:36or sexist jokes amongst some of the guys.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42Jokes such as, why did the woman cross the road?
0:20:42 > 0:20:45"Who cares? What the hell is she doing out of the kitchen?"
0:20:45 > 0:20:47LAUGHTER
0:20:47 > 0:20:53He wanted to know whether jokes like these changed the normal boundaries of acceptable behaviour,
0:20:53 > 0:20:56boundaries indicated by this white line.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03For example, in the case of mild sexual harassment in an office.
0:21:05 > 0:21:10When exposed to sexist humour, the blue sexist guys
0:21:10 > 0:21:15uniquely perceived the instance of sexual harassment as acceptable.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18- Only with humour?- That's right.
0:21:18 > 0:21:20- Not with sexist statements? - That's right.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24But sexist humour uniquely makes light of sexism,
0:21:24 > 0:21:27it uniquely invites us to treat it as a joke,
0:21:27 > 0:21:30as not serious in the immediate context.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34And so, in a sense, we have a new...norm.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40A new standard of appropriate conduct.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43And so now everything within the blue circle
0:21:43 > 0:21:47represents socially acceptable ways of responding.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50And in further experiments,
0:21:50 > 0:21:53Tom found that after hearing sexist humour,
0:21:53 > 0:21:56men with hostile attitudes to women
0:21:56 > 0:21:59were more likely to discriminate against women's groups financially,
0:21:59 > 0:22:02for example, by cutting their budget.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07And they were more likely to accept sexism at a societal level,
0:22:07 > 0:22:11such as the underrepresentation of women in Parliament...
0:22:11 > 0:22:16or the unequal division of domestic chores like cooking.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21Men who are not sexist who are exposed to sexist humour,
0:22:21 > 0:22:27- it makes no difference to them cos fundamentally they have their own belief system.- Exactly.
0:22:27 > 0:22:33But men who are sexist get a kick out of sexist humour and feel empowered by sexist humour.
0:22:33 > 0:22:39Yes, I would agree with that. And they feel empowered by sexist humour and they feel liberated.
0:22:39 > 0:22:41Our blue guys who have sexism,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44they generally go around life suppressing the sexism
0:22:44 > 0:22:46that they carry with them.
0:22:46 > 0:22:53What sexist humour does, it frees the sexist man to express his sexism without fears of reprisals.
0:22:56 > 0:22:58Thank you very much. Thank you.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02What Tom is saying is you may not be sexist at all,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05but if you laugh at sexist jokes either just to be sociable
0:23:05 > 0:23:09or in what you think is an ironic way, men and women,
0:23:09 > 0:23:13what you are actually doing is validating people in the room
0:23:13 > 0:23:15who are sexist or misogynistic.
0:23:15 > 0:23:17And hearing gales of laughter
0:23:17 > 0:23:21simply encourages them to behave in a sexist or misogynistic way.
0:23:26 > 0:23:31If laddism and humour have been vehicles for normalising misogynistic language,
0:23:31 > 0:23:36some people have argued the place that's allowed it to run rampant is the internet.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41It's an issue that's hit the headlines in the last year
0:23:41 > 0:23:45after the wave of online abuse directed at women in the public eye.
0:23:49 > 0:23:54Not least guests on the BBC's own flagship programme Question Time.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00Every week as the rig goes up,
0:24:00 > 0:24:05the world of social media gets ready to pass judgment on the panel.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09I'd been monitoring the response to every woman
0:24:09 > 0:24:13to appear on the programme in the first three months of the year.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18There are reams of tweets and social media coming in.
0:24:18 > 0:24:24You know, second by second people are commenting not only on the subject, but also on the panellists.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28It's amazing just how much people when they're watching the programme
0:24:28 > 0:24:30want to react to it.
0:24:30 > 0:24:34And for women on the panel the background noise in unmistakable.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37It's personal and it's sexual.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39And a big welcome to you watching at home.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42"Ruth Davidson can suck my fucking noggin.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45"Motormouth dumb bitch.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49"Don't suck so much cock, big mouth."
0:24:51 > 0:24:53The worst example of this new trend
0:24:53 > 0:24:56is what happened to Professor Mary Beard
0:24:56 > 0:24:59after her appearance on the programme last January.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02On one popular discussion site,
0:25:02 > 0:25:06a picture of female genitals was superimposed on her face.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10And the comments were just as sexually derogatory...
0:25:16 > 0:25:18..ran one.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23While another speculated on the capaciousness of her vagina.
0:25:24 > 0:25:30For Professor Beard, this language has consequences, both personal and political.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34You do have to steel yourself a little bit,
0:25:34 > 0:25:37because it's quite affecting when you get this stuff.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39But most of all, it's just infuriating.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43My views on anything are actually irrelevant
0:25:43 > 0:25:46to the size or shape of my vagina. I'm sorry.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52I've decided I'm going to face the music, but there must be loads of women who think,
0:25:52 > 0:25:55"That's just not what I want. I don't want that kind of rubbish."
0:25:55 > 0:25:57And it's vile, it really is vile.
0:25:57 > 0:26:02You think, "Why would anybody really bother to do this
0:26:02 > 0:26:05unless they were terribly determined."
0:26:05 > 0:26:09So I think it's very bad for women's participation
0:26:09 > 0:26:11in the public sphere, honestly.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15As Mary Beard says, there's a danger
0:26:15 > 0:26:18that some women could be driven from public life.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23Now, it's an open question whether any woman can be in the public eye
0:26:23 > 0:26:28without exposing herself to the possibility of graphic, sexualised abuse.
0:26:30 > 0:26:32Whether it's Ruby Tandoh,
0:26:32 > 0:26:34one of the finalists in The Great British Bake Off,
0:26:34 > 0:26:36being called a whore.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40Gymnast and Olympic medallist Beth Tweddle
0:26:40 > 0:26:42being dubbed a slag and a slut.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47Or Caroline Criado-Perez being bombarded
0:26:47 > 0:26:50with threats of rape and murder
0:26:50 > 0:26:53after her campaign to get a woman on the back of a British banknote.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00The threats have been so explicit and so graphic
0:27:00 > 0:27:05they've stuck with me in my head and have really put me...in fear.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10The abuse Caroline received was one of the stories
0:27:10 > 0:27:14we covered on Newsnight last year that struck me the most.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18And it's the key case that's resulted in a criminal conviction,
0:27:18 > 0:27:20with Isabella Sorley and John Nimmo
0:27:20 > 0:27:24being jailed for their part in the verbal onslaught.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28- Why did you send those messages? - I can't say nowt else.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33It is illegal to make threats to rape or murder,
0:27:33 > 0:27:35but when the sentences were announced,
0:27:35 > 0:27:38there was a distinct strand to the reaction on Twitter.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45Should language be treated differently online?
0:27:45 > 0:27:47Is it somehow less real?
0:27:50 > 0:27:54I spoke to columnist and provocateur Rod Liddle,
0:27:54 > 0:27:57who's dished out some pretty strong language in his Spectator blog
0:27:57 > 0:28:02and who's no stranger to a bit of internet abuse himself.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06It's distressing if...if you allow it to distress you, I suppose.
0:28:06 > 0:28:11And it's distressing to all of us in a very real sense, Kirsty, you know?
0:28:11 > 0:28:16It's distressing to me when I read stuff telling me they hope I die of cancer.
0:28:16 > 0:28:21Some people say that what's on the internet can be completely disregarded.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25You know, if somebody's on the internet saying, "I know where you live and I'm going to rape you."
0:28:25 > 0:28:27You should just disregard it.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31But, actually, for people getting that you can understand how disturbing it was.
0:28:31 > 0:28:33Of course and it's prosecutable.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36But I think a lot of the rest of the stuff which goes on though, you can just write it off.
0:28:36 > 0:28:42Just ignore it. Someone said that I look like a drug-addled middle-aged lesbian.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46- You know, someone else said... - That's quite insulting to lesbians. - Very insulting to lesbians.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50People have said they'd like to see me stabbed, killed, beheaded.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53It's every day. Get a grip!
0:28:53 > 0:28:56Why would it be worse for a woman than for a man?
0:28:56 > 0:29:01Why would it? Unless there is something inherently different between us
0:29:01 > 0:29:06which makes you guys less able to put up with this. I don't think there is a difference.
0:29:06 > 0:29:11I don't think...that this is a gender problem,
0:29:11 > 0:29:15I think it's a political and class problem.
0:29:15 > 0:29:17I think it's the middle-class left
0:29:17 > 0:29:22who cannot abide having their world views challenged,
0:29:22 > 0:29:25transgressed, sometimes in rather brutal language.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29There is a special issue with women and feeling vulnerable,
0:29:29 > 0:29:30I will grant you that,
0:29:30 > 0:29:34but if there's one thing to learn from what you're saying they must not take the internet seriously.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42But can we dismiss the internet as somehow divorced from real life?
0:29:42 > 0:29:44DUCKS QUACK
0:29:47 > 0:29:49I went to see linguist Dr Claire Hardaker,
0:29:49 > 0:29:51who studies online abuse,
0:29:51 > 0:29:55to see whether she thought the internet and the mainstream media
0:29:55 > 0:29:59are completely separate or intertwined.
0:29:59 > 0:30:01Well, effectively what we have here is sort of a,
0:30:01 > 0:30:04if you like, a bit of a map of how you can have a behaviour
0:30:04 > 0:30:06that can occurs in one domain and can spread to another.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09So if we take, for instance, an article by AA Gill,
0:30:09 > 0:30:13he was critiquing a programme by Mary Beard.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16And what he actually starts talking about a great deal is her teeth,
0:30:16 > 0:30:19her hair. The outfit is an embarrassment.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22So effectively we start off with this idea of appearance,
0:30:22 > 0:30:24of being an object.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27And as we move on, we start to see this turning into things like
0:30:27 > 0:30:29very implicit suggestions of sex.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32So for instance, Clarkson, "You wouldn't want to."
0:30:32 > 0:30:34Not the Mary Beard in this case, it's Hilary Clinton.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37Exactly. And it's this really implicit sort of,
0:30:37 > 0:30:39"Would you sleep with this? Would you have sex with it?"
0:30:39 > 0:30:41And where does this take us to?
0:30:41 > 0:30:45OK, so what we find is from the media, we effectively get
0:30:45 > 0:30:51this movement across into the online behaviour of public figures.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57For example, there was a spat among three broadsheet journalists
0:30:57 > 0:31:01in which James Delingpole tweeted that Toby Young had,
0:31:01 > 0:31:03"Given Suzanne Moore such a seeing-to
0:31:03 > 0:31:06"she'll be walking bow-legged for months."
0:31:07 > 0:31:10If you think about the language of that, such as "seeing-to,"
0:31:10 > 0:31:12that she'll be walking bow... It's quite aggressive.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15We're talking about quite a violent type of action or behaviour.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18And then we come on to the just the general tweets.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20So these are the ordinary people.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23Effectively by this point the ideas and tropes that began in the media
0:31:23 > 0:31:28have now become really loud, really amplified, quite extreme.
0:31:28 > 0:31:30So for instance we have things... rape,
0:31:30 > 0:31:32"I'd do a lot worse things than rape you."
0:31:32 > 0:31:37- And then when it hits this... - Mm-hmm.- ..what happens next?
0:31:37 > 0:31:39So it doesn't actually stop here.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43What we find is a really interesting feedback loop that takes us
0:31:43 > 0:31:45back up to the media.
0:31:46 > 0:31:50What Claire's saying is the ideas that started in the media,
0:31:50 > 0:31:53that were massively amplified online,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57reappear louder than ever back in the mainstream press,
0:31:57 > 0:32:01in articles by journalists, such as Rod Liddle.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03If we take, for instance, Rod Liddle's article
0:32:03 > 0:32:05about Professor Beard, Mary Beard.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08He's interestingly, essentially trying to argue that the attacks
0:32:08 > 0:32:11that she's receiving are not misogynistic.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14So, effectively, Rod Liddle, what he is doing is he's saying is
0:32:14 > 0:32:17it's not really misogyny, it's just people criticising you.
0:32:17 > 0:32:19- It's your fault. - So he's minimising.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23He's minimising and he's excusing and justifying.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25So you could think of this actually as a big loop.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28It starts up in the media with these very implicit ideas.
0:32:28 > 0:32:31It goes onto the internet where it's hugely amplified,
0:32:31 > 0:32:32it's taken to its extreme,
0:32:32 > 0:32:35and then it feeds back around again to the media
0:32:35 > 0:32:39who pick up on these ideas, who feed it, who make it bigger,
0:32:39 > 0:32:42and so on it goes in an endless cycle.
0:32:42 > 0:32:47If Claire Hardaker is right, what happens online counts.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50It's exacerbating already problematic attitudes
0:32:50 > 0:32:52to women offline.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56I wanted to know if Rod was at all concerned by the potential impact
0:32:56 > 0:32:58of his journalism.
0:32:58 > 0:33:03You can't just say something and expect people to understand it.
0:33:03 > 0:33:05You actually have a responsibility
0:33:05 > 0:33:08to make sure you're saying things in context.
0:33:08 > 0:33:10No, I don't, actually.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12I think I think we've got to be radical about this.
0:33:12 > 0:33:14I think as soon as we feel ourselves,
0:33:14 > 0:33:17we feel this self-censorship coming on...
0:33:17 > 0:33:21"Oh, my God, if I write this will people take it the wrong way?"
0:33:21 > 0:33:23It's incredibly damaging and limiting to freedom of speech.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26That's no way for a journalist to behave.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30That is no... We may as well be an insurance loss adjuster.
0:33:34 > 0:33:36Free speech, of course,
0:33:36 > 0:33:39has been one of the founding principles of the internet.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44Is it a coincidence that the apparent rise in misogyny
0:33:44 > 0:33:48has happened in parallel with the rise of the online world?
0:33:48 > 0:33:50Or is there is something about the internet itself,
0:33:50 > 0:33:54beyond its relationship with the media, that has encouraged
0:33:54 > 0:33:56language that's hostile to women?
0:33:56 > 0:33:59Nice to see you!
0:33:59 > 0:34:01Laurie Penny is a blogger and journalist
0:34:01 > 0:34:04who practically grew up online.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08I'm interested in knowing whether or not you think that the internet
0:34:08 > 0:34:11is simply giving, as it were, a different kind of voice
0:34:11 > 0:34:15to sexism or misogyny, or do you think there's something new at work?
0:34:15 > 0:34:18I think there's definitely a new kind of misogyny developing
0:34:18 > 0:34:22right now. The internet has not created the new misogyny,
0:34:22 > 0:34:25I think the internet has facilitated a new misogyny
0:34:25 > 0:34:29and it has allowed people to speak about sexism
0:34:29 > 0:34:33and exchange sexist ideas in a new and angry way.
0:34:33 > 0:34:37Do you think this atmosphere grows out of the fact that originally,
0:34:37 > 0:34:42way back when, the internet was more a male space?
0:34:42 > 0:34:46Back in the old days of 1980s, 1990s, in the early days
0:34:46 > 0:34:53of the internet people were very much, very utopian about the internet
0:34:53 > 0:34:56as a space where you could be anybody you wanted to be,
0:34:56 > 0:34:59but it turned out quickly after that that if anybody
0:34:59 > 0:35:02came into those spaces and said, "Oh, yeah, I am a woman,
0:35:02 > 0:35:04"I am a person of colour, I'm gay,
0:35:04 > 0:35:08"I'm a lesbian," then they started to get attacked for those things.
0:35:08 > 0:35:13So the internet was a space which was neutral only if you pretended to be
0:35:13 > 0:35:15a white, straight man.
0:35:15 > 0:35:21The idea that it's not our space, it's really men's space
0:35:21 > 0:35:24that women just inhabit is extremely pervasive.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29One of the early internet memes, or viral ideas, was...
0:35:34 > 0:35:39Even today it's been estimated just 15-17% of Silicon Valley engineers
0:35:39 > 0:35:40are women.
0:35:42 > 0:35:47Does the architecture of the internet kind of favour men?
0:35:47 > 0:35:53Well, geek culture as a whole is massively influential
0:35:53 > 0:35:56over the culture, the various cultures of the internet,
0:35:56 > 0:36:00and for a very long time geek culture, nerd culture,
0:36:00 > 0:36:03was deeply misogynistic, deeply mistrustful of women,
0:36:03 > 0:36:08and there is a very broad overlap between geek misogyny
0:36:08 > 0:36:09and internet misogyny.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20To understand geek mentality and the culture the internet grew out of,
0:36:20 > 0:36:24I've come to Insomnia - the UK's biggest gaming festival.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30Today gaming is a massive industry, arguably bigger than Hollywood,
0:36:30 > 0:36:33and female participation is on the rise.
0:36:35 > 0:36:36But just like the internet,
0:36:36 > 0:36:40it was largely built by and once dominated by men.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45I want to know whether its attitudes towards women can tell us something
0:36:45 > 0:36:48about the online world,
0:36:48 > 0:36:50and the way women tend to be represented in games
0:36:50 > 0:36:52has got people talking.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55Girls in games are very, very sexualised.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58You get used to it at the end of the day, that's what just happens,
0:36:58 > 0:37:00so you aren't really like, "Oh, my God, her boobs are out."
0:37:00 > 0:37:02In fact, you're like, "OK, cool,
0:37:02 > 0:37:03"that's what she's meant to be like."
0:37:04 > 0:37:08But there's one game whose portrayal of women has stirred up
0:37:08 > 0:37:11just about more controversy than any other.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15Grand Theft Auto, created by the Scottish company Rockstar.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20On the release of its latest incarnation,
0:37:20 > 0:37:24set in a sleazy version of LA, some reviewers accused the game of
0:37:24 > 0:37:26rampant misogyny.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30It didn't stop it becoming the fastest-selling entertainment
0:37:30 > 0:37:31product of all time.
0:37:34 > 0:37:35I got some gamers to show me
0:37:35 > 0:37:39one of its perennially controversial features.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43How in your travels around the city you can sleep with prostitutes,
0:37:43 > 0:37:47then decide whether to mug or kill them to get your money back.
0:37:49 > 0:37:50He's spent the money,
0:37:50 > 0:37:52but there's a chance for him to get the money back.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54There is. You can mug people in Grand Theft Auto.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57Yeah. Oh, my God. Is he...
0:37:57 > 0:37:59And there's the money.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02You can do the violence to anybody in the game.
0:38:02 > 0:38:04I think people pick up on it more obviously because it is a woman.
0:38:06 > 0:38:07But it, for me, it...
0:38:07 > 0:38:09Not everybody's just going to go out
0:38:09 > 0:38:12and just hit a woman in the back of the head thinking it's a good idea.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16I wouldn't do that in the game. That doesn't interest me.
0:38:16 > 0:38:18I'm playing the game for the story,
0:38:18 > 0:38:21not for the fact that I can take a prostitute to a back alley,
0:38:21 > 0:38:25have sex, then punch her in the back of the head to get my money back.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28To me, that's not this game. I don't play this game for that.
0:38:28 > 0:38:30It is for some people, you accept, for some people.
0:38:30 > 0:38:31No, I don't think is.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34I think people don't buy it for that particular part.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37I think that Rockstar put that in because, you know,
0:38:37 > 0:38:40for the shock value. Shock value sells.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47But while these gamers can't see the appeal of sexualised violence,
0:38:47 > 0:38:49others haven't found it so difficult.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55Online there are pages and pages of "how to" videos,
0:38:55 > 0:39:00in which players share their techniques for killing prostitutes.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04GAMER: Come here, bitch. I want my money back!
0:39:04 > 0:39:06Come here, you fucker!
0:39:08 > 0:39:1150 bucks? I paid 100 bucks. Where's the rest of it?
0:39:12 > 0:39:16It is striking that such a hugely popular game can have such
0:39:16 > 0:39:18dismissive representations of women.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23The million dollar question, though,
0:39:23 > 0:39:25is how are real women treated when they game?
0:39:27 > 0:39:31Many can be played online with other gamers from around the world,
0:39:31 > 0:39:34using headsets and instant messaging to communicate.
0:39:36 > 0:39:39I joined Nicola, who's been gaming since she was six.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41When you talk to them,
0:39:41 > 0:39:44what are the kind of responses people make to you?
0:39:44 > 0:39:48The tendency is, they want to know about you as a girl,
0:39:48 > 0:39:51and it's usually along the lines of, "Where are you from?"
0:39:51 > 0:39:52"How old are you?"
0:39:52 > 0:39:56But then you get the young adolescent guys who are just trying to be
0:39:56 > 0:39:59abusive and they'll send really crude messages,
0:39:59 > 0:40:03insinuating what they'd like to do with me, essentially.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07Nicola recorded some of her gaming at home to show me
0:40:07 > 0:40:08what she faces when she plays.
0:40:11 > 0:40:13Yeah, I'm a girl.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18Why would I need to do that to justify I'm a girl?
0:40:18 > 0:40:22I've had situations where if I'm persistently doing well,
0:40:22 > 0:40:25beating someone, it's like, "I'm going to find you.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27"I'm going to come and find you and rape you."
0:40:27 > 0:40:30And when you say, "Hey, I don't like this,
0:40:30 > 0:40:32"this is really inappropriate," does it make any difference?
0:40:32 > 0:40:36Well, that's the problem. I mean, you feel kind of intimidated by it
0:40:36 > 0:40:38and your response just aggravates it,
0:40:38 > 0:40:40so what I've learnt to do is just laugh it off.
0:40:50 > 0:40:52I'm thick skinned, I've got used to it now,
0:40:52 > 0:40:54And it's gone from getting...
0:40:54 > 0:40:57Your first game within two minutes you're being abusive,
0:40:57 > 0:41:01to I can play now for a week and I'll go a whole week without any abuse,
0:41:01 > 0:41:03provided I don't play at night.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07- It's not exactly freedom, is it? - No.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20The situation may be improving,
0:41:20 > 0:41:24but there's one particular case that shows just how far hostility
0:41:24 > 0:41:26to women in gaming can go.
0:41:28 > 0:41:32Anita Sarkeesian launched a crowd-funding appeal to finance
0:41:32 > 0:41:36a short film she wanted to make looking at how women are portrayed
0:41:36 > 0:41:38in video games.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40Welcome to our multipart video series exploring the roles
0:41:40 > 0:41:43and representations of women in video games.
0:41:43 > 0:41:47In response, she was inundated with rape threats,
0:41:47 > 0:41:51sexualised and violent images, her website crashed...
0:41:51 > 0:41:55A computer game that invited you to hit her created.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59I wanted to know whether Anita's experience could reveal
0:41:59 > 0:42:03something fundamental about the dynamics of online abuse.
0:42:03 > 0:42:07Well, so what was interesting is that, or also disturbing,
0:42:07 > 0:42:09is that they refer to this behaviour as a game.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13Like, they even have theme music and little videos about it.
0:42:13 > 0:42:17I feel like while it is disturbing to think of the abuse
0:42:17 > 0:42:20and assault of a woman as a game, it does help to sort of
0:42:20 > 0:42:23understand how this kind of cyber-mobs operate, right.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26They were showing off their abusive behaviour to one another.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30And so you kind of have this, like, macho posturing happening,
0:42:30 > 0:42:33where they're earning the praise and approval of their peers.
0:42:33 > 0:42:35And this is not just anonymous either, right,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38we're actually seeing the faces of some of the people.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41On Facebook you can see people's names and places of work.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44Like, this isn't just about anonymity.
0:42:44 > 0:42:46How would you characterise what has happened to you
0:42:46 > 0:42:49and what is still happening to you?
0:42:49 > 0:42:52Well, this is really misogyny on a grand scale, right,
0:42:52 > 0:42:56like this is the hatred of women, the exclusion of women,
0:42:56 > 0:42:59of maintaining this boys' club.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02And boys' club means no girls allowed, to keep us out
0:43:02 > 0:43:05and keep us not participating in these spaces,
0:43:05 > 0:43:07and not having a voice in these spaces.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11And what the harassment does is, it creates an environment that is
0:43:11 > 0:43:13too toxic and hostile for women to endure.
0:43:13 > 0:43:17And sometimes it works and that's what's really sad about it.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31Maybe geek culture can offer us a key to understanding
0:43:31 > 0:43:34the way that misogyny seems to become embedded in the very DNA
0:43:34 > 0:43:36of the internet.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39Technology companies appear to work in a way that protects
0:43:39 > 0:43:41the perhaps embattled males of the species
0:43:41 > 0:43:46at the expense of females, gay people, minorities.
0:43:46 > 0:43:49And this really matters because the internet isn't just a force
0:43:49 > 0:43:53in our lives. Increasingly, it is shaping our lives.
0:43:57 > 0:44:01But I'm not convinced that the internet creates misogyny.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04After all, it predates the online world.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09So why do some men have such deep feelings of anger
0:44:09 > 0:44:10and contempt for women?
0:44:12 > 0:44:16It's a question feminists have been asking for some time.
0:44:20 > 0:44:25In 1970, in a book that became the rallying cry for a generation
0:44:25 > 0:44:29of feminists, Germaine Greer wrote a hugely controversial statement.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34"Women have very little idea of how much men hate them."
0:44:36 > 0:44:39Well, the thing about that statement in the book,
0:44:39 > 0:44:44it doesn't imply that men loathe women and this is somehow a secret,
0:44:44 > 0:44:48but that there is an element of hatred and rejection
0:44:48 > 0:44:50in men's relationships to women,
0:44:50 > 0:44:54which women are unfortunately unaware of at their peril.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58I wanted to know what she made of misogyny today,
0:44:58 > 0:45:01and what could be provoking it.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03This is what's known as the Hutch.
0:45:04 > 0:45:06And these...
0:45:06 > 0:45:08these are my titles.
0:45:08 > 0:45:09They're not all of them.
0:45:12 > 0:45:14"Brilliantly written, quirky and sensible.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16"Full of bile and insight."
0:45:16 > 0:45:20Bile, that's the stuff you need. Give us more bile.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24But, I mean, who would have thought 45 years on...
0:45:24 > 0:45:26Or maybe you would have thought 45 years on.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29No, I wouldn't have thought 45 minutes on.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32I never thought once you had social media there would become this
0:45:32 > 0:45:36terrible grab bag of loathing of women.
0:45:38 > 0:45:42Have things changed for women in terms of the way that men
0:45:42 > 0:45:45feel about them in the last 45 years?
0:45:48 > 0:45:52One way of answering that would be to say that men are now more aware
0:45:52 > 0:45:55of women because women keep pushing themselves in.
0:45:55 > 0:45:57Nowadays women expect to share men's lives.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00They want to do the same work, they want to play the same games,
0:46:00 > 0:46:03they want to have the same social life,
0:46:03 > 0:46:05and I think it's driving men nuts.
0:46:05 > 0:46:09And the result would seem to me to be that men are even more less tolerant
0:46:09 > 0:46:11of women than they were before.
0:46:11 > 0:46:17Now, if men have always needed women to be in a subservient,
0:46:17 > 0:46:20filial, ancillary position.
0:46:20 > 0:46:25When they stand up and call attention to themselves,
0:46:25 > 0:46:29it produces reactions which are difficult to manage, I think.
0:46:34 > 0:46:38Germaine Greer is not the only one who thinks female success
0:46:38 > 0:46:40is giving men an identity crisis.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49I was editor of Loaded for eight long years...
0:46:49 > 0:46:52Many, like Martin Daubney, are beginning to ask serious
0:46:52 > 0:46:57questions about what it is to be a man today, particularly a young man.
0:46:58 > 0:47:02Where is the anger coming from in young men?
0:47:02 > 0:47:05There's a lot of confusion, and I think the confusion in terms of
0:47:05 > 0:47:08what is my destiny, you know, what's my job, what's my role,
0:47:08 > 0:47:12is very confusing for young men and I think it's causing anger.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15And I think young men are angry that there's no jobs for them,
0:47:15 > 0:47:18there's no traditional gender role, they see women going by them
0:47:18 > 0:47:20in the fast lane.
0:47:20 > 0:47:24Generations of defined gender models have just been thrown to the wind
0:47:24 > 0:47:26and I think men are frightened by that.
0:47:26 > 0:47:31So the outlet for their anger is attitudes against women
0:47:31 > 0:47:32because they feel that women
0:47:32 > 0:47:34are actually taking their rightful place.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37No, they feel that they're losing their balls.
0:47:37 > 0:47:40I think it comes down to the basics.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43They're kind of no longer a man.
0:47:43 > 0:47:45So in terms of culture, though,
0:47:45 > 0:47:50where do men find ways to be masculine?
0:47:50 > 0:47:52Or do men need still to be masculine?
0:47:52 > 0:47:54Well, I mean, the pervasive force now,
0:47:54 > 0:47:58- the real opinion shaper is the internet.- Mm.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02Quite simply, you know, young men are, you know, consuming,
0:48:02 > 0:48:06you know, not just porn, but also extreme content,
0:48:06 > 0:48:10violent content, decapitations, gross-out content.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13Young men always like to gross each other out,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16but now the currency is much more extreme.
0:48:16 > 0:48:21And feeding into that, of course, is the more violent sexual content
0:48:21 > 0:48:23which is now absolutely ubiquitous.
0:48:23 > 0:48:26You know, if that's what you're seeing over and over again
0:48:26 > 0:48:29is there an insidious message that this is how you must behave
0:48:29 > 0:48:31in real life towards real women?
0:48:35 > 0:48:39Porn is available in a quantity and of an explicit quality
0:48:39 > 0:48:41unknown to previous generations.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50And some people are arguing we're conducting a grand experiment
0:48:50 > 0:48:52with malleable teenage brains.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59Oakgrove School in Milton Keynes is alive to the challenges
0:48:59 > 0:49:03facing young people today, if they view this material at the
0:49:03 > 0:49:07very age when they're forming their ideas about the opposite sex.
0:49:07 > 0:49:08Can you answer this question for me?
0:49:08 > 0:49:13Where do YP - young people - learn about sex?
0:49:13 > 0:49:14Can I join this table?
0:49:16 > 0:49:19- So was porn the first one on there? - Yeah.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26I joined one of their sex education classes, run by the charity Brook,
0:49:26 > 0:49:30to find out what boys and girls do think about each other,
0:49:30 > 0:49:32and what some of the pre-conceptions are
0:49:32 > 0:49:35that the school wants to challenge.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37There's sometimes bad stuff on it as well, like on porn.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41Like sometimes you see things like a step-dad with daughter.
0:49:41 > 0:49:49Porn, like, makes it look unequal. Men being more dominant than women,
0:49:49 > 0:49:51where it should be equal.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55Do you feel pressures from porn as well,
0:49:55 > 0:49:59the way that sex is portrayed in porn would affect the way that guys
0:49:59 > 0:50:01- want to have sex with you? - Yeah.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04I feel like guys get, I don't know, like attention...
0:50:04 > 0:50:05- They get more focused on...- Yeah.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09Because of porn and because it's stereotypical that they watch porn
0:50:09 > 0:50:12- and that...- They expect girls to behave a certain way.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14Yeah, and they expect sex to be a certain way
0:50:14 > 0:50:16and that they should be the focus of it...
0:50:16 > 0:50:19Like they're the more dominant one
0:50:19 > 0:50:21when it comes to sex and relationships.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25And according to this group of young people,
0:50:25 > 0:50:30girls' active sexual desires are actually punished.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32If a girl loves sex.
0:50:32 > 0:50:34She wants sex, talks about sex... Yeah?
0:50:34 > 0:50:36She would be classed as a slut.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40What about if there was a guy that was really into sex?
0:50:40 > 0:50:43- Yeah?- He's just a boy. - Just being a boy?
0:50:43 > 0:50:47He would get ratings for it, if he had sex a lot.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52If the message that some boys are taking away from porn
0:50:52 > 0:50:56is that to be a man is to pursue their own sexual desires,
0:50:56 > 0:50:59and that girls who are sexually active are simply sluts,
0:51:00 > 0:51:02could what girls want
0:51:02 > 0:51:05be in danger of going unnoticed?
0:51:08 > 0:51:11Yas, Lili and Georgia are so concerned about their
0:51:11 > 0:51:15generation's understanding of sexual consent they have launched their
0:51:15 > 0:51:19own campaign for it to be taught as part of the National Curriculum.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25They're worried that a culture which routinely reduces women to
0:51:25 > 0:51:28sex objects and everyday language which makes light of
0:51:28 > 0:51:31sexual harassment and assault,
0:51:31 > 0:51:35is leading to confusion about what sexual consent actually is.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41And that that's having an impact on young people's behaviour.
0:51:42 > 0:51:44For me, I feel that more needs to be said about
0:51:44 > 0:51:46respecting personal boundaries.
0:51:46 > 0:51:51So I was at a party a few weeks ago and a lot of the boys
0:51:51 > 0:51:53were being very touchy-feely with the girls
0:51:53 > 0:51:56or basically groping them when the girls didn't want to be touched,
0:51:56 > 0:51:58and I was speaking to my friend after and she said,
0:51:58 > 0:52:00"You know, I wish they'd teach us in lessons,
0:52:00 > 0:52:03"you can't treat a girl like she's a toy."
0:52:03 > 0:52:04What did the girls say to the boys?
0:52:04 > 0:52:07Did they not feel confident enough to say, stop that now?
0:52:07 > 0:52:10Yeah, I don't think girls are even told they can say that.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13I think girls feel like they have to put up with it.
0:52:13 > 0:52:17It's definitely, like, feeling like you can't speak up against it.
0:52:17 > 0:52:19What about jokes?
0:52:19 > 0:52:23I mean, rape jokes, what kind of jokes go round your school?
0:52:23 > 0:52:24Yeah, I used to,
0:52:24 > 0:52:26I used to count up how many I would hear a day
0:52:26 > 0:52:29in secondary school at one point,
0:52:29 > 0:52:31and I would hear at least three every day
0:52:31 > 0:52:34just walking down the corridors.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38If there was one thing that kind of summed up the way you see
0:52:38 > 0:52:43the problem as it affects you guys, your age, what would it be?
0:52:43 > 0:52:48Well, the terrifyingly iconic case is always the one in America,
0:52:48 > 0:52:52in a small town called Steubenville, which is where a group of boys
0:52:52 > 0:52:56raped a 16-year-old girl and livetweeted and took photographs
0:52:56 > 0:53:00of the attack, and I think that really sums up what we want
0:53:00 > 0:53:04to change, which is this notion that rape culture is just to be accepted.
0:53:11 > 0:53:15What happened in Steubenville was so shocking,
0:53:15 > 0:53:18some have even dubbed it rape culture's Abu Ghraib moment.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24At a high school party, a girl who was semi-conscious
0:53:24 > 0:53:28was carried around, digitally penetrated and masturbated over
0:53:28 > 0:53:30by two star football players.
0:53:37 > 0:53:41As it happened, other partygoers commented online.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58The two footballers were convicted of rape.
0:53:59 > 0:54:01But despite all the evidence,
0:54:01 > 0:54:05many blamed the victim for her own assault.
0:54:05 > 0:54:06One tweet ran...
0:54:15 > 0:54:18But do you think that the Steubenville case is something
0:54:18 > 0:54:22for America, or is the atmosphere the same here?
0:54:22 > 0:54:25It's definitely an international problem.
0:54:25 > 0:54:29We have exactly the same social networks as America,
0:54:29 > 0:54:32we have just as little legislation about it.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35The exact same attacks happen here as in America.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37I think it could absolutely happen here,
0:54:37 > 0:54:42and to be honest, it probably has, but we just haven't heard about it.
0:54:49 > 0:54:53I'm actually shocked and pretty distressed by what Georgia,
0:54:53 > 0:54:56Lili and Yas have to say and what they have to deal with.
0:54:56 > 0:54:58But maybe it shouldn't be such a surprise.
0:54:58 > 0:55:02If we treat women as sex objects and trivialise sexual assault,
0:55:02 > 0:55:07are we in danger of colluding in, or at least allowing to exist,
0:55:07 > 0:55:10a culture which rape isn't seen for what it is?
0:55:10 > 0:55:13And this doesn't just affect a few high-profile women,
0:55:13 > 0:55:16it's playing out in the lives of ordinary young people.
0:55:22 > 0:55:26There seems to me to be a terrible irony here.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29What many of the feminists of the 1970s fought for
0:55:29 > 0:55:31was a better understanding of sexual violence
0:55:31 > 0:55:34and for women's own sexual liberation.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40But in the culture wars that have followed, while women have
0:55:40 > 0:55:44made gains in many spheres, the latest reactionary response
0:55:44 > 0:55:48has tried to push us back, in this area at least, to where we started.
0:55:50 > 0:55:55I wondered what that early pioneer Germaine Greer made of it.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00Liberation hasn't happened. People like to think that it has.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03What happened... Even sexual liberation didn't happen.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07What happened was that commercial pornography was liberated,
0:56:07 > 0:56:10fantasy was liberated, but people weren't liberated.
0:56:14 > 0:56:16Now, though, have we reached a tipping point?
0:56:18 > 0:56:22Just as social media has given oxygen to misogynistic views,
0:56:22 > 0:56:26and the internet acted as a vehicle for their distribution,
0:56:26 > 0:56:30could technology become the means for women's own fight back?
0:56:30 > 0:56:35The potential for ideas like anti-sexism to go viral
0:56:35 > 0:56:38is a really, really interesting way of fighting back,
0:56:38 > 0:56:42because misogyny and sexism are essentially reactionary.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46The internet is not by its nature reactionary, the internet changes.
0:56:48 > 0:56:51Online, you can find a wealth of young feminist activism.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57There's a thank you note to internet trolls by Isabel Fay
0:56:57 > 0:56:59and the Clever Pie team.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02# I'm really sure
0:57:02 > 0:57:04# That if I met you
0:57:04 > 0:57:08# You probably wouldn't rape me like promised that you would
0:57:08 > 0:57:10# We are like that... #
0:57:11 > 0:57:14Australian students have done a witty riposte to
0:57:14 > 0:57:16Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines.
0:57:16 > 0:57:18# You think that you're so slick
0:57:18 > 0:57:20# Let me emasculate ya
0:57:20 > 0:57:22# Because your precious dick
0:57:22 > 0:57:24# Can't beat my vibrator
0:57:24 > 0:57:26# We're feeling the frustration
0:57:26 > 0:57:28# From all the exploitation
0:57:28 > 0:57:30# Prepare for your castration
0:57:30 > 0:57:34# So we can fuck this man's world... #
0:57:36 > 0:57:40And The Everyday Sexism Project helped score a major victory
0:57:40 > 0:57:44last year - harnessing the power of online activism with
0:57:44 > 0:57:46the #fbrape campaign.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51It forced Facebook to change its rules and prohibit violent,
0:57:51 > 0:57:55misogynistic content on its site.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59What is heartening is that women are standing up to misogyny.
0:57:59 > 0:58:03The barrage of abuse experienced by prominent women like Mary Beard
0:58:03 > 0:58:05has shocked people into action.
0:58:08 > 0:58:10The challenge we face as a society
0:58:10 > 0:58:14is deciding exactly what form that action should take.
0:58:14 > 0:58:18If we think about sexism and misogyny as air pollution,
0:58:18 > 0:58:20we're all breathing it in, right,
0:58:20 > 0:58:22regardless of how much we're contributing
0:58:22 > 0:58:26to that air pollution, we all have a responsibility to fix it.
0:58:26 > 0:58:29If you think that by getting rid of men's mags
0:58:29 > 0:58:32and getting rid of Page Three, that that's going to change anything,
0:58:32 > 0:58:34I really do think you're living in fantasy land.
0:58:34 > 0:58:37You know, we need to educate young men to behave differently,
0:58:37 > 0:58:38not lecture at them.
0:58:42 > 0:58:45Young women and men deserve to grow up in a society where
0:58:45 > 0:58:47there's a culture of mutual respect.
0:58:47 > 0:58:50That's what I want for my daughter and my son.
0:58:50 > 0:58:54I think we're at a moment where, if misogynistic views are tolerated
0:58:54 > 0:58:56and gain a solid footing,
0:58:56 > 0:58:59there'll be destructive consequences for the next generation.
0:58:59 > 0:59:02And that's no laughing matter for any of us.