Are You A Rapist Or A Lads’ Mag Reader? Take The Test

WHAT do we make of the Middlesex University and Surrey University report that likens comments made by convicted rapists to those found in lads’ mags? Most men presented with words uttered by rapists and found in lads’ mags “identified themselves more with the language expressed by the convicted rapists”.

The rapists’ quotes were taken from the book The Rapist Files: Interviews With Convicted Rapists. Other quotes were taken from men’s mags like FHM, Loaded, Nuts and Zoo. How many rapists have read Loaded is not said. We also are not told how many men who read lads’ mags also read hard core porn magazines or look at XXX-rated websites. We are not told why rape jokes are acceptable and what it says about men who laugh at them and men who tell them.

We learn that “when presented with descriptions of women taken from lads’ mags, and comments about women made by convicted rapists, most people who took part in the study could not distinguish the source of the quotes”.

Men identified more with the comments made by rapists more than the quotes made in lads’ mags, but men identified more with quotes said to have been drawn from lads’ mags more than those said to have been comments by convicted rapists. The researchers also asked a separate group of women and men aged between 19 and 30 to rank the quotes on how derogatory they were, and to try to identify the source of the quotes.

Men and women rated the quotes from lads’ mags as somewhat more derogatory, and could categorize the quotes by source little better than chance.

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Anorak

Posted: 12th, December 2011 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comment