(By Andrew MacKie-Mason)
I don't want to get into the backstory on this one. But I did want to link to this article. As I commented on a friend's posting of it, "I very rarely enjoy anything on Jezebel. But this was actually good."
The key, I think, is realizing that comedy is just another form of communication. Because comedy (often) works by playing with language, we should cut it some slack when it's facially offensive. But that just means we need to look closer for the underlying message. And if the point of the joke is to be nasty (rather than, say, to caricature and ridicule nastiness), the fact that it's a joke doesn't make the comic less of a jerk.
From one 'cunty feminist' to, hopefully, another (feminism is actually the belief that women, like your mother, girlfriend, sister, what have you, have the right to respect and equality, just so we're clear. feminists aren't naked, ugly hags fighting for control over men) --
ReplyDeleteRape Culture is not a matter of working around rape jokes so they're not as offensive. Rape Culture is not negotiating what is and is not okay about rape jokes. Rape Culture is about the brutalization of women, the pain, the guilt, the trama... Rape Culture is taking one person's most terrifying experience, joking about it, and expecting them to think that their own trama is funny. Rape Culture means women are expected to figure out whether or not men are just joking about raping them.
I don't want to making any hasty assumptions, but as a man, what do you think about while you're walking outside at night? Do you think about how chilly it is, or how much it sucks you have to get up early the next morning, or mentally patting yourself on the back for how much work you got done that day? Rape Culture is a woman dressing like a boy when she goes outside at night, one finger on a speed dial number in her phone, another hand clutching keys between her fingers in self defense, a rape whistle attached. Rape Culture is doing everything to protect yourself against rape, and still getting blamed for your own rape one way or another.
Rape Culture is media telling the people that a girl deserved to get raped because of what she was wearing, how much she was drinking, or where she chose to be in the middle of the night, even though none of these things singular or in combinations warrants unwanted sexual advances. Rape Culture is the way we teach our daughters 'don't get raped' instead of teaching our sons 'don't rape'.
So from a man's point of view, sure, there might be a 'right' way to make a rape joke. But from a woman's point of view? It's disgusting no matter which way you slice it.
This seems like a relatively generic "Rape Culture is bad!" comment, that's not actually responsive to either my post or the article I was referencing.
DeleteYou imply a sharp gender divide here ("from a man's point of view"/"from a woman's point of view"). But unless "Lindy West" (as well as the names of many commenters on that thread) is a man's name, your point of view seems more personal than gender-based.
The point of the article (and what I was trying to get at) is that there are "rape jokes" which are not about thinking "trauma is funny". There are "rape jokes" which are about ridiculing those who buy into "Rape Culture," or about expressing positive messages about a tough topic through comedy.
Discerning those messages can sometimes take effort, and the good kind of "rape jokes" can often look like the bad kind at first glance. But I don't think that means that we should shut down an entire realm of positive-messaged communication, just because it might be misunderstood.
On a different note, what runs through my head at night depends a lot on where I am. But often, I'm thinking about remaining alert enough to make sure I'm not mugged. Take that however you want. Of course, it's not really relevant, and the (common) style of argument that seems to blame people solely for feeling safe is extremely counter-productive.
And I'll just close by pointing out two damaging myths about rape that your comment perpetuates: the idea that rape is a gendered issue, which serves to silence male victims who feel isolated from support built up only for female victims (and who are also made to feel as though their rape was an assault on their gender identity); and the idea that blitz attacks are the largest threat, or what people need to be most concerned about (when in reality, various forms of acquaintance rape are far more common).