Mapping university lad culture: investigating laddish identity and practice

Laddism is a pervasive form of masculinity in UK universities associated with: binge drinking (Dempster, 2011), casual sex (Jeffries, 2019), misogynist and sexist banter (Phipps & Young, 2013), playing sports (Dempster, 2009). In addition, this form of masculinity is linked with endemic sexual violence in student communities (Goldhill & Bingham, 2015; Smith, 2010). However, little research has investigated laddish identity and (sexually violent) practices from the perspective of self-identified lads (SILs), which this thesis redresses. This project used a mixed methods approach to more precisely define lad culture, primarily through semi-structured interviews with SILs (n=5), which sought to gather data on the ‘lived experience’ of lad culture. These data were triangulated with a questionnaire (n=144) and semi-structured interviews with university activists (n=10) in order to compare SIL and non-lad responses.
Quantitative data indicated that self-reported laddism is significantly related to viewing sexually violent acts as less problematic, and to frequent engagement in banter and playing sport. Thematic analysis of qualitative data revealed that SILs construct their identity in relation to an ‘ideal laddish subject’ – which is male and masculine, heterosexual, white, and young – while recognising their own distance from this ideal. Confirming previous research, SILs recognised binge drinking, banter, playing sports and casual sex as laddish practices. Through these acts, SILs ‘do’ laddish hegemonic masculinity and subordinate alternative masculinities and women. The practices are also performative of neoliberal discourses of consumption, competition, individualism and disaffection. Findings demonstrated that laddish practices create a ‘conducive context’ for sexual violence (Kelly, 2016).
Because these findings offer an understanding of laddish identity as related to structural privilege, future anti-lad culture activism in universities must destabilise structures such as heteropatriarchy. Future research should map out and evaluate the efficacy of such activism, to generate effective alternatives to the hegemony of laddism in university contexts.