This article references sexual assault and rape.
Shocking footage from new Channel 4 documentary Magaluf Undercover: Predators and Parties has further emphasised the dangers of violence women face on a night out, as well as a total lack of male culpability for both perpetrators and those who stand by or encourage them.
The documentary sees investigative journalist Ellie Flynn go undercover on the strip in Magaluf over three days and nights, pretending to be drunk, secretly filming and exposing the disturbing predatory behaviour that women are subjected to, particularly when they're out partying and drinking.
The new series is inspired by Delia's 2017 memoir.
It shows Ellie and colleague Emily Birtley interact with a range of men, with shocking scenes recorded on their hidden body cameras. For instance, Ellie is harassed by a man when he finds her alone on a sun lounger. He ignores her rebuttals.
“You are my last chance,” he says to her. “Do you want to kiss a little bit?” The man then proceeds to tell his friend: “She's completely wasted”, and – chillingly – his friend responds: “Let's go for it! Let's go for it.”
A different man targeted Ellie on a separate occasion, trying to follow her when she separated herself from Emily. He was overheard telling his friends he was going to follow her, and once again, no one seemed to bat an eye. “He seemed to be alerting his friends... that he was going to target a vulnerable, drunk girl, and his friends were like 'yeah cool' and just stood there while he did it,” Ellie said.
The Magaluf Undercover footage summarises so many women's worst fears on a night out, and so many more women's lived reality. Research conducted as part of the documentary found that nearly 40% of women surveyed felt that – like Ellie and Emily's undercover experiences – they had been taken advantage of whilst being alone on a party holiday.
Almost a quarter of those surveyed said they’d experienced sexual assault, with almost 1 in 10 women reporting experience of a sex act – including rape – without consent.
The documentary findings and the reality it depicts shows a worrying attitude from men about when it is and isn't appropriate to approach a woman, intoxicated or not. After all, nearly a quarter (24.89%) of men surveyed for the Channel 4 project believed that someone dancing or standing alone indicated they were looking for a sexual partner.
1 in 5 of the men (17.72%) also admitted to touching a stranger in an intimate area without their consent, while more than 30% (31.22%) admitted they had kissed someone without their consent during a night out on holiday.
It's a shocking indictment of our culture that any percentage of men believe that women are there for the taking in this way – that enjoying yourself alone or otherwise on a night out opens you up to being assaulted. Both the documentary footage and research that came with it demonstrates that women deserve more when it comes to their safety, and male perpetrators – and their friends – have far to go when it comes to educating themselves about consent and assault.
The documentary drops shortly after Saoirse Ronan's comments on the Graham Norton Show sofa about women's safety ground the Internet to a halt. The actor caused her male colleagues – Eddie Redmayne, Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and of course, Graham himself – some discomfort when she cut in on their conversation about ways to defend yourself against an attacker.
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As the group of Hollywood men took it in turns to discuss how hard it would be to come up with a tool to use against an attacker, Saoirse silenced them all with a few words: “That's what girls have to think about all the time. Am I right ladies?”
She has since talked about the huge response her words had, and how it proves “something really telling about the society that we're in right now and about how open women want to be with the men in their lives.”
Saiorse is right – women do want to be more open about their experiences of violence and lack of safety. But they also want men, whether they're in a night club with us or walking home beside us, to truly understand the dangers we face.
We also want them do all that they can to fight for change alongside us, so that violence against women is no longer the epidemic that it is.
For more information about reporting and recovering from rape and sexual abuse, you can contact Rape Crisis on 0808 500 2222.
If you have been sexually assaulted, you can find your nearest Sexual Assault Referral Centre here. You can also find support at your local GP, voluntary organisations such as Rape Crisis, Women's Aid, and Victim Support, and you can report it to the police (if you choose) here.
