Prison Rape Jokes Are The Furthest Thing From Funny
By Ijeoma Oluo
Prison rape is an exercise in power and degradation. To laugh at it is to participate in dehumanization.
When former Oklahoma police officer Daniel Holtzclaw was convicted of multiple counts of sexual assault, black women in America saw a small measure of justice. In a world where rape victims rarely see justice, and women of color see it even less, many of us took to social media to show our relief that finally the system showed that it can care about rape victims and black women. But with the relief, elation, and justified schadenfreude, there were also rape jokes. Prison rape jokes.
These prison rape jokes weren’t coming from your typical bro-dudes and hack comics who get a giggle out of the subjugation of women — they were coming from other women, other progressives, other feminists. I find it distasteful to critique how people who have been abused and marginalized react to seeing such a symbol of oppression as a white cop who targeted black women with sexual assault finally get what is coming to him, but I think it’s important to understand the harm of prison rape jokes.
Let’s look at what rape is. Rape is not a sexual act that magically turns into a violation. Rape is an act of power…
