Rape "jokes"
So I was waltzing through my day, when I came up a Jezebel article about the actor Rainn Wilson making a rape "joke" on Twitter. And I had stumbled onto the article through Facebook, where people were commenting things like, "Jeez, it's just a joke! There are bigger things to worry about!"
Well. I was going to write a big, fiery response to that kind of thinking, about how rape "jokes" just add to the insane amount of rape culture that we have in this society, making it easier for people to shrug off the sheer amount of rape that happens, making it harder for rape victims to come forward. But I am not going to write that post now. Instead, I'm going to link to THIS amazingly good response to the people who say, "It's just a joke. Get over it."
An excerpt -
"Ignorance of the prevalence of rape, of the possibility that you are making a joke in front of a rape victim, and ignorance of the vastness of racism, is only a further indicator of just how much more fucked up and shitty the experience of the victim you are joking at has been. And refusing to see that ignorance for what it is, and own it, and make a commitment to educate yourself, is the second very clear indicator of where your loyalties lie. And don’t think that’s lost on the people who have to hear your nervous giggles."
It is a really, really good and necessary read.
Well. I was going to write a big, fiery response to that kind of thinking, about how rape "jokes" just add to the insane amount of rape culture that we have in this society, making it easier for people to shrug off the sheer amount of rape that happens, making it harder for rape victims to come forward. But I am not going to write that post now. Instead, I'm going to link to THIS amazingly good response to the people who say, "It's just a joke. Get over it."
An excerpt -
"Ignorance of the prevalence of rape, of the possibility that you are making a joke in front of a rape victim, and ignorance of the vastness of racism, is only a further indicator of just how much more fucked up and shitty the experience of the victim you are joking at has been. And refusing to see that ignorance for what it is, and own it, and make a commitment to educate yourself, is the second very clear indicator of where your loyalties lie. And don’t think that’s lost on the people who have to hear your nervous giggles."
It is a really, really good and necessary read.
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