Is misogyny still alive and kicking?

Dapper Laughs has made news again this week after one of his shows was cancelled at the University of Cardiff due to a petition signed by 700 students against his performance.
According to the metro 'A petition entitled ‘Ban Dapper Laughs’ Show,’ was started by student Vicky Chandler, who called for his appearance to be pulled, branding it ‘a soap box for his misogyny inside the walls of an academic establishment that claims to protect the rights of its students.’' 

I couldn't agree more with Chandler and the rest of this egotistical man's (if you can call him that) critics. He's a danger to the rising rape culture we face today as he regularly glamorizes the idea that men are entitled to females' bodies and that the only thing we as women have to offer men is our appearance and vaginas.  

The ever growing 'lad' subculture are the target audience for his un-funny 'comedy' videos. He's played a huge role in influencing puberty ridden boys up to young men that the way to get a girl is to make some grotesque comment about how you can make them 'proper moist' or to use the (not at all derogatory) cat call.

What's possibly even more damaging than his videos is the tirade of support he has received for them. As expected the majority of fans are young and male. However an even more worrying public display of support came from Liam Payne of One Direction who is renowned for his young and impressionable female fan base. It's not an overstatement to say that a lot of his fans would change their behaviour for the love and attention of their idol so this tweet has the ability to be detrimental to the attitudes of some pubescent girls desperate for the approval of their hero.

The fact that there's a section of the entertainment industry that is accommodating and reinforcing every day sexism by giving air time to men like Dapper Laughs is beyond me.



The bitter truth that a man is able to make his living off of subduing women to the ideal that they exist purely for man's pleasure is truly staggering. What's worse is we as a society are subconsciously promoting his career method by either doing nothing about it or worse yet actually supporting him and the producers of his show.

Sexual Abuse on YouTube

In recent weeks there has been an outcry of discontent with certain youtubers in the YouTube community. This is of course, the infamous sexual abuse scandal. At least four or five content creators in the last year have been called out for their inappropriate treatment of women and their attitude towards sex and consent.

Whilst a large number of viewers and fellow content creators have expressed their disgust at this kind of  behaviour, it's still very disheartening to see the legion of 'loyal' followers and fans who have dismissed the accusations.

I'm not one to generalise but there seems to be a very noticeable pattern in the people who are defending these unacceptable actions. Young female 'fangirls.' I'm in no way saying that all fangirls are incapable of holding their idol accountable for any conduct that may be immoral or unlawful and there has been numerous cases of young fans feeling very betrayed and dismayed by the actions of someone they looked up to so greatly. Regardless it is still worrying to see the amount of people that have stood up for actions that are not only morally wrong but unquestionably illegal.

It upsets me incredibly to see how many teenage girls will dismiss sexual harassment and support seriously vile people just because they find them attractive. This is the problem with celebrity and YouTube culture, no one is being held accountable for their actions because they’re ‘hot’. It honestly feels like some fans are even scared to admit their idols have wronged in fear of being called out for being a ‘fake fan’. (That phrase itself could have it's own blog post it infuriates me so much!) 

I think it's so important for everyone to realise that any sort of physical contact with a person without their constant is sexual harassment and that regardless of how attractive the culprit is they should not be able to get away with it. Sexual harassment or abuse can also be conducted verbally and can result in the mental manipulation of a person to do something against their wishes. This can be done by incessantly asking to the point of them being extremely uncomfortable, guilt tripping or black mailing.

It's so important to fight sexual abuse of any kind and to not stand by perpetrators. In some situations certain content creators have even been able to make a living off sexual abuse disguised as entertainment and it is increasingly necessary to stop this happening.