ONLY a few weeks ago I had briefly considered the utility of some sort of mandatory social awareness class for students.
This week, however, what had started out as quite a positive rumination has rapidly morphed into something rather more rabid.
Now I think perhaps it might be more beneficial to simply not allow men to join the public sphere until they can prove with absolute certainty that they understand two basic concepts: respect and consent.
This week the University of Otago made national news when it was revealed a (male) student had been running a Facebook page that published without consent photographs of local women in various states of undress for thousands of men to see.
Those who publish material like this without the explicit consent of the photographed party are sexual predators.
Behaviour like this is a violation of women's trust, privacy, and sexual autonomy.
For me, this behaviour very much highlights the ''lad'' culture that is so insidious throughout this institution.
Young men come to the University of Otago operating within a climate of rape culture and casual misogyny.
And authority figures are often complicit in this culture.
Unfortunately, nobody in a position of power is telling these young men that they are not entitled to women's bodies, attention or time.
Nobody is telling them that we are not objects for their amusement or to further their university experience, and nobody is telling them that we are autonomous, sentient beings who deserve respect and who do not exist only in relation to men and their desires.
''Lad'' culture is so dangerous because it passes off violent misogyny as just a joke or as banter. As such, any expression of offence is reduced to women simply overreacting to what is perceived as a bit of harmless fun.
They don't mean anything by it and so they are excused from examining their behaviour. They are exempt from any responsibility.
Personally, I respect men enough to understand their supposed lack of self-control is nothing more than a damaging and pervasive myth.
It is simply that when it comes to women, men are taught from an early age that they don't have to control themselves.
The behaviour of the members of this page was no momentary lack of self-control; it was calculated and malicious, and claims to the contrary are deliberately evasive and dishonest.
The idea posited by members of this group that the ''girls'' need to ''get over it'' because the ''boys'' just got a bit carried away is ludicrous and offensive.
The claim the group was started out of nothing but respect for women is laughable.
Evidently, no-one has ever actually explained the concept of respect to these unfathomably dense individuals.
The exposition of this kind of behaviour confirms to me that the University of Otago is not a safe space for women.
I already feel unsafe walking on campus at night because male students feel they can physically and verbally harass me.
I am not alone in this and I am horrified this threatening behaviour is also taking place online, where it can have almost everlasting social repercussions for victims.
These women had every right to take these photos and to share them with however many consenting partners they wished.
Nude photographs belong to the individual who took them and who gets to see them is entirely their choice.
They do not deserve to be shamed for their bodies or for their sexuality. Violating someone's privacy and publicly exposing them is an act of violence.
And it is an act of violence that should not go unpunished.
-Millie Lovelock is a Dunedin student.
