UniLad magazine advocating rape - have there been threads on this already?

I'm only surprised that they were arrogant enough to put this in print. This is the kind of talk that goes on all the time around lots of groups of men when they don't think/care that women are listening.

"Rape is a crime, and it doesn't matter whether the rapist is a man or a woman" In this country it does. A penis is required for rape - a woman can only be convicted if she forces a man to penetrate another, unconsenting, woman.

2004-2005 I think, Kveta.

Although, strictly, since you were a member of the GUU, I don't think I should be talking to you.

Yes, quick, must hide any suggestion of the oppression of women. Move along now. Nothing to see here. Anyone would think we were feminists or something.

That's fucking disgusting.

I went to Glasgow uni which has two unions, one for fey indie people and one for people who play rugby. The first edition one year of the latter's union magazine had a game where you scored points depending on who you slept with.

It contained the immortal line "no means yes and yes means harder".

Didn't even get their wrists slapped.

Would throttle either.

Sadly true.

wahwah or daugher

Can you imagine if it was your son writing for that?

Do this people not have mums, sisters, grans, aunts? How would they feel if someone attacked them? Laugh it off?

I despair.

free universal quality childcare

Certainly not declaring women a minority worthy of special protection. That reinforces damaging stereotypes.

Best way of achieving equality in my mind is breaking down boundaries of traditional gender roles, legislation which enables a couple to choose who takes parental leave, rather than forcing the mother to have the career break or lose any entitlement is the first step.

Rape is a crime, and it doesn't matter whether the rapist is a man or a woman. Or whether the victim is a man or a woman. Problems in persecuting rape properly need to be addressed, but putting special emphasis on the sex of the victim just reinforces the idea that women are victims, IYSWIM.

By looking at only the misogynist aspect of the rape jokes in that magazine, the flipside of saying that a man needs to be sexually aggressive in order to conform and be accepted is ignored. That message however is as damaging as the misogyny.

I think insisting on women being different from men is missing the point big time. (And fails to acknowledge that this magazine is hateful of men and women alike, and mocking anyone who is not hetero)

With regards to DV - that gets milder punishments no matter whether the perpetrator is male or female (and yes I'm aware, that the vast majority of reported cases is male perpetrator female victim). So whilst DV is a problem that needs addressing, I think that's less to do with women being marginalised than you claim.

Being divisive and insisting on women being a seperate group which needs special treatment isn't helpful.

The characteristics that are protected by the Equality Act 2010 are:

age (in employment, further and higher education only)
disability
gender identity and gender reassignment
marriage or civil partnership (in employment only)
pregnancy and maternity
race
religion or belief
sex
sexual orientation.

I think going any further than that would achieve the opposite of equality

although it looks like there has to be an intention that others would commit the crime.

Even so, it looks like someone has had their arse well and truly kicked which is how it should be.

Joking about rape is not a hate crime. It's obviously offensive but yu can't start policing everything people say and laws already exist to deal with what that magazine has done - y9u can't encourage someone to commit a crime, it's against the law!

It would send out the message that women are an oppressed group, which they are.

StewieGriffinsMom - I think classing violence against women as a hatecrime similar to racist or disablist motivated attacks would cause more problems than it solves. It would send out the message that women are different, and in a minority, which is the opposite of what I want.

Not sure how declaring rape - which already is illegal - a hate crime changes anything anyway.

As for going at the advertisers - good idea, in general, but now that website has been closed down a little bit too late. I had a look yesterday, and the only advertiser I could see was a pay-day loan company. So not exactly anything I could start boycotting as I wouldn't have used such services in the first place.

Some women who haven't been raped, whose friends haven't been raped, whose family members haven't been raped think like that I guess.

I think until it enters your world as a thing that happens, and you realise how much it happens, it's easy to see it as so rare and outrageous that of course anyone who talks about doing it is joking.

There's several things which I found ick about it, other than the obvious misogyny and rape jokes things

1. there's a woman writing for them calling herself feminist for doing so @LornaNaylor. Ok, she's quite young, and seems a bit naive, but it's sad to see that amount of naivity and lack of introspection

2. it's not only hateful about women, but as Petra Boynton rightly points out equally hateful about men and ridiculing their problems with their "advice" columns

3. Some of their "advice" (e.g. double condoms) is increasing risk of STD transmission rather than reducing it. Even if just meant as a joke, it's a potentially dangerous joke

Apparently they've closed the site to relaunch - I hope they come to their senses and keep the shop shut, as I can't see them rebranding to anything which they haven't been with their target audience in mind.

It's absolutely baffling that they allegedly didn't realise what they were doing. They were targeting people at uni, in higher education. They should have enough awareness to realise that rape isn't funny.