'Just show her your penis.

If she cries, she's just playing hard to get. Get your gash out". It is shockingly sexist language which should be confined to the distant past. But instead, it is an example of "dating advice" which until last week was given by Dapper Laughs, the self-styled "pulling magnet" who courts laughs by depicting real-life harassment of women - and who became a national lightning rod for the fury stirred up by modern day misogyny.

Equally charming is US "pick-up artist" Julien Blanc, whose tips include approaching women and clasping their throats, posted under the hashtag #ChokingGirlsAroundtheWorld.

Like Dapper Laughs, played by Daniel O'Reilly, Blanc found himself at the heart of a furious backlash in the UK. The world crashed down around O'Reilly last week after footage emerged of him joking that a woman in the audience at one of his stand-up shows was "gagging for a rape". His show was dropped by ITV2 bosses and O'Reilly issued a grovelling apology, vowing not to perform as Dapper Laughs again.

More than 120,000 people have signed a petition calling on the Home Office to keep Blanc out of the UK. The controversial "dating coach" - who charges upwards of £1000 for "seminars" which suggest men should harass and abuse women to attract them - was last month forced to leave Australia early when his visa was revoked.

Meanwhile, the case of footballer and convicted rapist Ched Evans has triggered huge controversy, with Sheffield United criticised for letting him train with his former team after release from prison. Yesterday, a protest was held in Sheffield demanding he is not reinstated.

According to reports last night, the club does not intend to offer him a contract.

Police are also investigating abusive tweets targeting Olympic gold-medallist Jessica Ennis-Hill after she said she wanted her name removed from a stand at the club's ground if it re-signs Evans.

The Twitter user said he hoped Ched Evans raped Ennis-Hill. On social media, many men defended Evans, attacking the young woman he raped, claiming he is innocent, and hurling abuse at those standing up against misogyny. Sheffield United says anyone involved in any alleged online abuse will be banned for life from the club.

Some say the outcry over these cases is a welcome sign of progress in the 21st century. But the real question is, why is it needed at all?

Scot Janey Godley is one of 44 comedians who signed a letter condemning Dapper Laughs' "entirely sexist and degrading" act. Jenny Eclair, Katherine Ryan and male comedians including Scot Daniel Sloss also signed it.

Godley said: "What insulted me the most about Dapper Laughs was the fact he called himself a comedian. We have now got to where it is OK to run up to a woman and say, 'Can I smell your gash?' - because it is 1974 again? We have Ched Evans, a convicted rapist who is unrepentant, getting back to work again.

"There is an awful weird shift against feminism ... I just feel there is a movement on to make women less equal. And if a woman says anything on the web she will get rape and death threats."

Godley said she was against the idea of censorship, but that Dapper Laughs was giving a "dangerous" voice to men who think it is acceptable to shout abuse at women.

"He was lending a voice to the bunch of w*****s that stand in a bar and sneer at women that won't look at them," she said.

"I don't really like backlashes and I don't like petitions against things - but of course there is the example of Julien Blanc as well. In some cases we need people to rise up and say we need to say no to this."

When ITV2 first announced the Dapper Laughs: On the Pull show, it called it "brave comedy sketches" with Dapper offering his "dating prowess to members of the public". It noted he had a million Facebook fans, 300,000 Twitter followers, and more than half a million followers on micro-video site Vine.

Executive producer Dan Baldwin was quoted as saying: "I actually believe he is the new Cilla Black".

Examples of Dapper Laughs' "humourous" advice include him brandishing a knife to an imaginary woman while saying "lift up your f*****g shirt". On his show he shouted phrases such as "proper moist" at women in the street.

Responding to criticism of his act at a live show, he told the audience: "If it was a guide to rape, I would have done one five-minute episode, come on and go, 'Oi oi, I'm Dapper Laughs, go down the shops, get some rope, bit of duct tape, rape the bitch, well done, see you later'."

Nearly 70,000 people signed a petition calling on ITV2 to axe his show, which ran for six episodes from September 29. The TV ­channel subsequently said it would not be commissioning a second series.

Talat Yaqoob, a feminist writer and campaigner, said: "On the one hand I am glad that something like this can get picked up and cancelled. But on the other, the fact it existed really makes me question who is around these tables making the decisions. It is perpetuating this myth that no doesn't really mean no, you are just not asking properly or you are just not harassing enough.

"We are in this culture where we forgive it by calling it laddish behaviour and banter, when in actual fact I think that is quite derogatory towards men. There are a lot of men out there who don't find it funny.

"But the reality is somebody like Dapper Laughs got a TV contract because he has hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter and on Vine. You look at that and say well this isn't just ITV2's fault - this is a society and culture where laughing at that and retweeting that is considered funny.

"We have got to start educating people and ensuring that young men at a young age are actually educated about the fact that this isn't funny, it is harmful."

A recent survey from the National Union of Students found one in four students had suffered unwelcome sexual advances, and almost two-thirds of students have heard rape or sexual assault jokes on campuses.

Vonnie Sandlan, NUS ­Scotland women's officer, said it was "extremely heartening" to see the campaigns against "outright hatred and aggression against women in the name of entertainment". She added: "We need to ensure this leads to an equally public campaign against the violence and misogyny that women face in their daily lives."

The case of Evans, jailed in April 2012 for raping a 19-year-old woman in a hotel in North Wales, has also triggered a furious debate.

He was freed last month after serving half of a five-year sentence and says he is innocent, despite judges rejecting an appeal in 2012.

Scottish former Olympic badminton player Susan Egelstaff said: "As a professional footballer you are a role model and for me that is not really acceptable for a convicted rapist to be given that adulation," she said. "It gives the impression that as long as you are good at ­football you can do what you want.

"I think he should be allowed to work in football again, or he should of course be allowed to get a job again, I just don't think he should be re-signed for the first team.

"Sport has got an important place in setting good examples for society in some cases and I think this is a situation like that."

Egelstaff welcomed the stance of Ennis-Hill and others, but said a bigger statement would be if ­footballers refused to play alongside a convicted rapist.

A petition calling on Sheffield United not to reinstate Evans as a player now has more than 160,000 supporters.

But Jan Macleod, manager of the Glasgow-based Women's Support Project, pointed out it was easy to back an issue on the internet without thinking about it too much.

"We need to … harness some of that concern about sexual exploitation and related issues," she said. "It is very easy to click that button and think you have done something - and there are so many petitions … there is a danger it becomes slightly meaningless.

"But when you do get the huge numbers I think it is touching a chord with people."