Rape, not funny, not now, not ever.
Let’s kick things off with a joke.
“Knock Knock. Who’s there? Rape joke. Rape joke who? Rape joke who’s not fucking funny.” These are the sentiments of Belissa Escobedo and Rhiannon McGavin, two rape victims in their powerful speech about the trivialisation of rape at the Brave New Voice conference in 2013.
Do we live in culture that fails to take rape seriously? It is all too often that we see the vulgar act of sexual violence being trivialised by comedians, the media and by the general public in every day conversation. Earlier this month we witnessed Australian DJ and Producer Alison Wonderland publicly lash out at two “fans” who posted grotesque rape comments on an Instagram post. In the post seen below, the first boy commented on her image saying “can we rape her or something please” and another replied: “I would roofie her”, making reference to the date-rape drug Rohypnol. Alison Wonderland then called the two boys out on her social media outlets with a picture of the comments stating “Yo I wouldn’t usually call people out but I feel like this time it is important. Last 2 comments. This is not ok. Ever. I don’t care if it’s a ‘joke’. Not. Ok.”
Her followers reacted strongly and began to troll the boys and their families, until she asked them to stop and notified the public that they had apologised for their grotesque comments. These comments caused a positive stir through the realms of social media, being picked up by global news networks and communities, raising questions about our culture that in my opinion shouldn’t need to be asked. Why are we joking about sexual violence?
I’m a 26-year-old male, who like the majority of you reading this, has grown up through an era which could be best described as the golden years of technology, blessed by the Internet, social media and smart phones. All of these technologies giving us access to more content than we can possibly consume and connect with the people we admire without having to leave the comforts of our own device. As technology has evolved, so has the way we communicate, the language we use and by the looks of things our sense of humors.
Don’t get me wrong I’m a fan of crude humor and I have laughed at my share of inappropriate jokes. However it seems that we are living in a warped society when young males are expressing their attraction to an idol by making suggestions of raping her. Whether the comments were delivered with malice or intention (most likely not), who lead these boys to believe this was appropriate in any context? According to feminist columnist Shannon Ridgway , we are currently living in a “rape culture”, where as society, we collectively engage in situations where sexual violence is ignored, trivialised, normalised or made into jokes. Examples of this could be in pop music (what do you mean? Biebs), victimising rapists (sport stars), rape jokes (Daniel Tosh) or according to research only 2% of Rapists ever spend a day in prison.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK_0jXPuIr0[/embed]
Kira Cochrane from the guardian explains that impact and the meaning has been diluted by leveraging into modern vocabularies more regularly. “The use of the word ‘rape’ to describe all kinds of bad experience — from getting beaten up in a boxing match, to having your hairdo completely ruined — has recently become usual, average, shruggable. Just as the word ‘gay’ has been twisted by pop culture, used to refer to someone or something a bit uncool”
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSQ85ryb2Q0[/embed]
This kind of attitude toward sexual violence is not only a concern for women but for society as a whole. Anastasia Powell a journalist from The Conversation raises concerns about a culture that fails to take rape seriously. By lessoning the impact and consequences not only the word but also the act itself creates an unsafe environment for victims. Creating uncertainty around the response victims believe they will receive from the law, friends and family. These attitudes would not be held for equally serious crimes or lessor injustice. Priya Shetty explains in article written during the rape crisis in India, “language is a powerful weapon. Defuse the power of the word “rape”, take away its value to shock and terrify, and, for women at least, all is lost”
I think we can all agree that “rape culture” needs to end in modern society. Nobody should be condoning sexual violence even if it is “just a joke”. Women should feel safe in any environment, whether that is in the digital or real world. There are no “excuses” for sexual or domestic violence and victims should be encouraged to speak out. This is an issue that needs to be tackled by the masses and not just feminists and the odd brave celebrity. Rape is not funny, not now, not ever.
