I Hate How Society Makes Jokes About Rape

[This Ends Now]

I Hate Them Too

I just wanted to add to the group consensus that rape jokes are NOT funny. I have started avoiding media that glorifies or minimizes rape. It is just not cool. :naughty:

One of my friends (who is otherwise a decent person) used to make the most horrific rape jokes all the time. I made it no secret that I found them disturbing. I did not laugh. I would walk out of the room (sometimes with my super disturbing angry face on) every time. Eventually he stopped telling the jokes (at least when I was around). Even just remembering them now bothers me and it has been over a year since the last time one of the jokes was told in my presence. I have no idea how some people could find it so funny. :dontknow:

It is a sad sign of how sick the world has become. :mad:

Sila makes a good point about these things infiltrating our common speech patterns (unfortunately I have heard that term used in that context many many times).

Ms Spock makes a good point about the best defense against such vulgarity... complete boycott. I have many times seen the humiliated look on someone's face when nobody laughs at the joke.

I agree with Shoka that the prevalence of jokes about sexual abuse and violence against women has had a desensitizing effect on society. I think the same thing can be said about violence in general. I remember when some friends of mine got the series 24 on DVD. Everybody stayed up and watched the first several seasons pretty much straight through. What I found most interesting about the experience was watching the reactons my friends had to the situations depicted. Towards the begining of season one most of my friends winced at the violence and were appaled at the abuse of suspects and trampeling of the constitution. By season four the same people would fall out of their chairs laughing if a suspect dared to ask for a lawyer or a fair trial. Watching such a huge shift in the group over such a short period of time was very disturbing. It makes me think about the effect that such media is having on the population as a whole. :think:

 

[2quilt]

I learned something about how to respond to people who are doing something you dislike.

When you (fill in the blank with a behavior, a concrete and short description)
I feel (one word like -hurt- or -sad- or -insulted-, and not a monologue)
Next time ir in the future, I would rather you (fill in the blank with a concrete behavior)

example:

When you make jokes about rape
I feel insulted.
In the future I prefer that you don't tell rape jokes in my presence.


If the person responds with, "Well don't listen" or "Well, don't be offended", end the relationship because why would you want to associate with people who do not respect you?

 

[Shoka]

I agree that violence in US society is grossly glamourized, and I am sick of how murder and other violent crime is now mainstream entertainment. Why are we so obsessed with murder, rape, conspiracy, etc? Turn on your TV and count how many shows are on prime time that revolve around these issues- it's disturbing. Once your done counting the shows on TV, turn to the big screen next and notice how many movies are coming out that deal with the same themes.

What the heck is wrong here?

 

[TLight]

Really.........I think the U.S. has a lot of stress and violence is a result of it......rape is violence. To think that some people find this entertaining is just an example of how sick and deviant this culture truly has become.

Even shows like the 'special victims unit' one about sexual crimes........why the heck would we even have that on TV? Are we really that bored and sick that we find that entertaining?
Whatever happened to the great thinkers of this country? Emerson, Thoreau, Jefferson.......what about nature?

What about worshiping and finding the sacred?

I don't care for our culture so I try to have as little to do with it as possible. I don't watch TV, if so.......its PBS. I don't do the usual things people do for entertainment......I read, and I hate to associate with people who are raising their children to be a part of these immoral and sickening trends..

 

[sticks-and-stones]

Totally Agree!!!

I totally agree with everything you all said.

My (male) housemate is one of the most tactless men to walk the earth!
He loves all these old fashioned films and/or those where the man is able to treat the woman like dirt.

Actually, I think the worst thing he ever did was suggest watching the film Team America when I was having a pyjama day. I'd never seen it before (he had many times - he even owns the flipping thing) but how was I to know that towards the end the guy is forced to give another guy a blowjob. And the worst thing is that I'd only told him the day before what had happened to me. And all he did was say from the other side of the room "Are you alright Emsie?" to which I burst into even more tears. He still has no idea why I got so upset! He thinks it's ok.

GRRR!

S&S

 

[jennifer0506]

I completely agree.

So many things nowadays lose their sense of seriousness, because of these stupid jokes. I fail to see the humour in so many of them, and they often hit a sore patch. It's not even just rape; there are countless jokes about the disabled and about those with brain damage and brain disorders. These hit so many sore spots for me.

It creates a lot of discrimination if you ask me. Although I have never been raped, I have somehow escaped twice.. it has deeply scared me. I have never ever told my friends, and infact the only people that know are the people that have read my diary and my boyfriend. The only other person i told was a friend, who after i told her, when were walking past a bunch in the dark, she stopped me and went 'omg can you hear that! someones there!'. Ofcourse this completely triggered me. And here's the catch, she was joking. So i definetly think that rape, attemped rape, isn't taken as seriously as it should be.

So many people i know make stupid jokes about rape, like 'surprise rape' and some friends who yell 'rape' and jump on others. These kind of jokes are now even permitted on tv, everywhere.

I don't want to ban these things, in the end of the day you do need things to be a little lighter. But it's become too much, it's gone too far.

I think that people like to think we have moved on from the times when a person could say they have been raped, and not feel accussed of being a liar, feeling worthless and ashamed and shunned by others. But if i'm honest, it's still exactly the same.

Times really, really need to change. PROPERLY.

 

[Paloma]

In my experience, men who have been in prison...or are about to go...do not think rape is so funny. Hmmm. Could empathy spring from the possibility...the very real possibility... of it happening to them? Suddenly they get the dynamic of it being about power and not sex. They understand it has nothing to do with wearing a mini skirt or heels. They are afraid because they feel the constant threat around them... like most women do. I would guess men and boys who have been molested by adults or in hazing rituals, etc have the same fear.

I agree with all of you...as a woman and a rape victim... there is nothing funny about it. Women who have been raped are far more likely to have PTSD (and have it for life) than men who have been in combat. What does that tell you? It is a very personal atrocity. I avoid exposure to any reminders of that.

Paloma