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Sunday, July 02, 2006

AlterNet: Why Are Men Still Joking About Rape?

Rape is not a Joke

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Why Are Men Still Joking About Rape?
http://www.alternet.org/story/38334

It is nearly inconceivable, and certainly inexcusable, that TV shows like F/X's "Rescue Me" can still suggest that women 'enjoy' rape.
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I THINK THE STATIONS THAT AIR THAT SHOW AS WELL AS THE PRODUCERS NEED A BARRAGE OF OUTRAGED LETTERS.

posted by Anonymous @ 7/02/2006 05:23:00 AM  

5 Comments:

  • At Sunday, July 02, 2006 9:16:00 AM , Blogger JBlue said...

    I don't think a lot of men get it because it's not something their male friends have to live with, etc. They've never listened to a friend tell about her experience and know it could have happened to them and so on.

     

  • At Sunday, July 02, 2006 9:31:00 AM , Blogger Granny said...

    I haven't seen the show but you're right. You should hear me ranting about the one scene in Gone With the Wind.

     

  • At Sunday, July 02, 2006 2:36:00 PM , Blogger yellowdoggranny said...

    wonder how sexy or romantic dennis would think rape is, if he got hoisted by some big ole bubba right up his kazoo...

     

  • At Monday, July 03, 2006 2:21:00 PM , Blogger Endorendil said...

    Reminds me of a great bit by George Carlin.

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    "Ohhh, some people don't like you to talk like that. Ohh, some people like to shut you up for saying those things. You know that. Lots of people. Lots of groups in this country want to tell you how to talk. Tell you what you can't talk about. Well, sometimes they'll say, well you can talk about something but you can't joke about it. Say you can't joke about something because it's not funny. Comedians run into that shit all the time. Like rape. They'll say, "you can't joke about rape. Rape's not funny." I say, "fuck you, I think it's hilarious. How do you like that?" I can prove to you that rape is funny. Picture Porky Pig raping Elmer Fudd. See, hey why do you think they call him "Porky," eh? I know what you're going to say. "Elmer was asking for it. Elmer was coming on to Porky. Porky couldn't help himself, he got a hard- on, he got horney, he lost control, he went out of his mind." A lot of men talk like that. A lot of men think that way. They think it's the woman's fault. They like to blame the rape on the woman. Say, "she had it coming, she was wearing a short skirt." These guys think women ought to go to prison for being cock teasers. Don't seem fair to me. Don't seem right, but you can joke about it. I believe you can joke about anything. It all depends on how you construct the joke. What the exaggeration is. What the exaggeration is. Because every joke needs one exaggeration. Every joke needs one thing to be way out of proportion. Give you an example. Did you ever see a news story like this in the paper? Every now and then you run into a story, says, "some guy broke into a house, stole a lot of things, and while he was in there, he raped an 81 year old woman." And I'm thinking to myself, "WHY??? What the fuck kind of a social life does this guy have?" I want to say, "why did you do that?" "Well she was coming on to me. We were dancing and I got horney. Hey, she was asking for it, she had on a tight bathrobe." I'll say, "Jesus Christ, be a little fucking selective next time will you?"
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    Humans need to be able to joke about many things in order to deal with them. Death, disease, prejudice, discrimination, violence. They're part of life, and pretending they don't exist doesn't seem to help much.

    Having a character "enjoy" being raped is a great starting point for a public discussion on how pathological and rare such behaviour really is.

     

  • At Wednesday, July 12, 2006 6:55:00 PM , Blogger kittenpie said...

    I didn't see this show, but I do wonder - was it clear that it was rape, or was it a case of fast and rough sex? I don't ask because I think rape is impossible, but because I know that early on in the season, when I DID watch one episode, there was still some odd tensions between them that were not resolved, so I wonder if it wasn't intended in that way. (I do tend to give the benefit of the doubt unless I have seen / heard / read it.)

     

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