Phipps, Alison and Young, Isabel (2015) 'Lad culture' in higher education: agency in the sexualisation debates. Sexualities, 18 (4). pp. 459-479. ISSN 1363-4607

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Abstract

This paper reports on research funded by the National Union of Students, which explored women students’ experiences of ‘lad culture’ through focus groups and interviews. We found that although laddism is only one of various potential masculinities, for our participants it dominated social and sexual spheres of university life in problematic ways. However, their objections to laddish behaviours did not support contemporary models of ‘sexual panic’, even while oppugning the more simplistic celebrations of young women’s empowerment which have been observed in debates about sexualisation. We argue that in their ability to reject ‘lad culture’, our respondents expressed a form of agency which is often invisibilised in sexualisation discussions and which could be harnessed to tackle some of the issues we uncovered.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Law, Politics and Sociology > Sociology
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HQ The Family. Marriage. Women L Education > LC Special aspects of education
Depositing User:	Alison Phipps
Date Deposited:	25 Apr 2014 11:36
Last Modified:	05 Mar 2017 23:41
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/48275

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