CW: Misogyny
In April, I went interrailing, and the first stop was Prague. On the flight, I was struck by the very clear male majority of the passengers. It was a loud flight, often disrupted by hoots and cheers, loud laughing, and the hiss of beer being poured into the little plastic flight cups, which were then crinkled, and thrown to the ground.
Standing at the border control to Czechia, I identified about three separate stag groups, as well as what looked like several groups of teenage boys. Pretty much the only female travellers were those within families or with kids. I knew Prague was a bit of a ‘laddish’ destination, but, still, I was shocked. The man standing behind me at border control sidled up behind, and breathed hot air down my neck. I spun around, he refused to look away. He was drunk, and it was ten in the morning.
Making it through, we stood at the shuttle bus station, surrounded by rowdy Brits. ‘You know what this means’, one of them said: “loads of tits, loads of brass” (slang for a sex worker). They spoke loudly, refusing to respect the space of the many other passengers trying to get tickets or sit down. I have travelled often, both on my own, and in a pair or group, yet had never felt this uncomfortable. You hear horror stories about travel as a young woman. Funny, therefore, that the biggest risk by far for me was British men.
Eventually, after a hellish shuttle bus journey, I arrived. Having dropped our bags at the hostel, we began exploring the city on foot. I was taken aback by its beauty, and the unpleasantness of the journey washed away. We had arrived during Easter weekend, and there was a folk singing festival in the square, alongside stalls selling mulled wine and chimney cake. The sound of accordion, and the sweet heavy smell of cinnamon and spices drifted pleasantly through the small winding streets, dappled with pale April sunlight. Yet, despite this beauty, something was off. Between the old alleyways, the tall pastel houses exquisitely decorated almost like a wedding cake, between statues, and churches, and restaurants, everywhere, there were naked women.
There were lifesize cutouts of naked women with airbrushed features artificially blown up and shrunk down. T-shirts with bare breasts emblazoned with ‘I love Prague’. Magnets, bottle openers, postcards, posters adorned everything with boobs, butts, naked bodies as far as the eye could see, contorted into every possible position, and edited beyond recognition. So many female bodies in windows, on shelves, and signs, all of which men posed for pictures next to, laughing, or even mimicking a variety of sex acts with.
I went into a garishly lit shop to find a postcard, and as I walked up to the till, I saw a huge display of novelty condoms. The one at my eyeline had a massive red stop sign with a crude caricature of a plus-sized woman inside of it. At that moment I felt sick. Most embarrassing was that this was so clearly targeted towards Brits. Everything of this caliber was in English, and often would sit in displays next to British flags, or souvenirs related to British celebrities or football teams.
I am perfectly aware that this treatment of women exists inside the UK all around me. Behind closed doors, I’m sure there is the same sexist paraphernalia littered around university accommodation, flats, shared houses, and teenage bedrooms. However, it was the brazen nature of it that shocked me – not just the many items for sale, but overt sexism from tourists. Here were men going around in groups shouting sexist or racist football chants, getting publicly drunk, and approaching people on the street, engaging in objectifying sex challenges in pubs and clubs. There was a real sense of entitlement to the space – it was theirs to misuse and to dominate, theirs to make others (especially women) feel unsafe within, theirs to (I’m sure) make unbearable to locals. British entitlement to destinations abroad is disrespectful, often misogynistic in nature, and, above all, embarrassing.
This specific subgenre of ‘lads’ culture which centers around sex jokes and the degradation of women that once was dismissed as ‘boys being boys’ is often no longer tolerated. Certainly, in schools and universities, overt misogyny and disrespect is largely frowned upon, and more and more workplaces operate under strict harassment and discrimination codes. This makes things like casual workplace sexual harassment, or discrimination at schools and unis, which was incredibly common up until the last few decades less prevalent. Important to note though is that sexism obviously still runs rampant, though perhaps is more obvious in pubs and clubs than it is in daylight on the street or at work. Lads mags, incredibly popular in the 90s and 2000s, which often featured huge amounts of female nudity, such as ‘Loaded’ and ‘Nuts’ have largely been decommissioned, and are considered embarrassing rather than the mainstream media, they once were. Gone are the days they adorned the magazine shelves of every supermarket- now soft-core pornography has been moved out of tabloid publication and into more hardcore pornography online.
Don’t get me wrong, misogyny is still rife, and, in the last five years, it has undoubtedly worsened given the huge global shift to the right, rise of online misogynistic violence in the form of the ‘manosphere’ and rolling back of women’s rights all over the world. However, this specific genre of British ‘laddy’ misogyny has largely been pushed to the edge of acceptance, at least in the public sphere, given the rising awareness of the effects of discrimination and violence, especially post-MeToo.
These popular sites, such as Prague, or other party destinations, seem nostalgic for this era of ‘lighthearted’ laddish misogyny. Being abroad is clearly considered a chance to let loose, to get away with things you couldn’t at home, surrounded by people you know. I understand that impulse — when away, I have done things, or had conversations that I wouldn’t have in Oxford or at home, because of the sense of freedom that comes with travelling. Yet there is a very clear line between behaviour that is slightly deviant, and behaviour that is problematic and hateful.
‘Casual’ sexism abroad is never victimless, even if there are no immediate consequences. It puts women, who are local or also travelling, in danger, or, at the very least, can make them feel deeply uncomfortable. The objectifying items for sale frame women’s bodies as something to be objectified, commodified, and ultimately laughed at. It enshrines sexist narratives, and above all, it reframes sexism as something that is only bad when there might be consequences, not something that is always wrong. When people act in a misogynistic manner when they think no one is looking, it proves respectful behaviour was an act, always for their benefit, and never for women’s. Furthermore, when men export their misogyny abroad, and use being on holiday as an excuse to act in a way they wouldn’t at home, it shows that they consider the country they are visiting as less worthy of respect than their own, again highlighting the issue of British entitlement to foreign spaces. When women remain the butt of the joke, they always suffer, regardless of whether they were in Prague at the time.