Shutting down lad culture will help ease pressure on police

A police chief has frankly stated that officers do not have time to deal with misogyny, and I agree – to a degree.

Chief Constable Sara Thornton made the comments amid a review into whether misogyny should be treated as a hate crime.

She believes forces are too stretched to deal with it.

It comes at a time when prejudice against women and the devastating consequences of it are all too prevalent as stories about Google walkouts and allegations against Harvey Weinstein have dominated the headlines recently.

Police are underfunded and understaffed and there is no doubt they need to apply their dwindling resources to deal with rape and sexual assault claims.

But if these horrible crimes can be prevented, by tackling misogyny crimes before they escalate, then many women will be better off and it will relieve pressure off police.

The root of much of this, I believe, is lad culture and therefore the only people who can shut it down is men.

Lad culture does not necessarily need to be about violence towards women, it is also about the everyday sexists who make women feel uncomfortable then tell them not to be sensitive and to take it as a compliment when they don’t like it.

To those who have not experienced lad culture first-hand, of which there will be few women, standing up to it seems to be the easiest thing in the world.

But when many women voice their concerns, it is met with a scoff and remarks to ‘lighten up’.

I have experienced it first-hand.

When I was at the pub with three of my closest mates talking about my football match and one said they wanted to watch me play in ‘little tight shorts’, it was met with a chuckle from the rest of the all-male group.

When the same man mumbled a passing comment about my backside – not to me, but at me as if I could not hear – the rest sniggered.

They all laughed too as he talked about being pushed in another pub last week by the partner of a woman he was ogling all night.

He couldn’t see what he had done wrong despite the fact the (blatantly uncomfortable) woman even stood up to him and asked why he was staring, only to be told she should take it as a compliment.

I stood up to him because being objectified is not a joke and was told the same thing while the other two men said nothing – a common trend I was noticing.

Despite how it seems, these are actually good friends but their company that night was corrupted with these odd testosterone-fuelled comments.

They don’t even seem to realise they are making such offensive comments.

If I spend time with any of them individually, they would never say any of this.

It is a ‘pack’ mentality.

All it would take it is for one of the many men who outweigh the bad egg to speak out against the lad culture and shut it down, which would then lead to less crime against women and less pressure on police.