You Had To Be There: Rape Jokes

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UPDATE (07/13/12): Just saw this excellent piece by Lindy West, re-tweeted by @pattonoswalt: " How to Make a Rape Joke." Excerpt: Like the motivational-style poster of a man cradling an unconscious woman with the caption “How did you lose your virginity??” The answer: “Rohypnol.” Or the governor of Maine’s quip comparing a political foe’s budget plan to anal rape “without Vaseline”? Or the club incident in which comedian Daniel Tosh responded to a woman’s criticism by asking, “Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by, like, five guys right now?” The home secretary, Priti Patel, singled out the culture in the Met as an enduring problem, with a government source telling the Guardian: “We’re not letting them off the hook on this,” amid women’s groups concerns that is exactly what will happen. Ain’s experience showed her teacher’s misogyny was far from unusual and #MakeSchoolASaferPlace grew. Women and girls shared harrowing personal accounts of sexual harassment – from slapping and pinching to rape threats and body-shaming – all perpetrated by male students and educators.

They believe it is only based on physicality, but I opened their minds to the fact that sexual harassment can also happen through words, and the way one sees things,” he said. An anti-rape poster designed by one of Isaac’s students. It reads ‘Rape is Rape – Don’t mislabel it’ [Courtesy of Stephen Isaac] I agree with comedian George Carlin, who said that ‘anything can be funny, it all depends on how you construct the joke’. Another comedian, Daniel Tosh, made an attempt at a joke at a gig in 2014, that scared the woman he targeted. This was his joke: “ Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by like, five guys, right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her…” He stunned her into silence, and into leaving. The crowd laughed at her departure. The intention of this ‘joke’ was to humiliate and intimidate her. It worked.The IOPC said the behaviour was part of an offensive Met police culture, not just rogue individuals. “We believe these incidents are not isolated or simply the behaviour of a few ‘bad apples’.” Not receiving the support of other teachers makes me sad because I love my school,” Ain told Al Jazeera. “It’s hard because even the fact that it’s a 17-year-old to become a national mascot, the first to really voice out on this matter, just shows how our society has failed to protect our children.” Positive changes Brett Wheeler, who’s seen the issue from many sides – he’s an amateur comedian, a psychology instructor, a humor researcher and a former rape crisis center worker – believes some of the increase in rape jokes is due to increased aggressive humor on the part of standup comedians.

The IOPC said it reviewed thousands of messages and some officers tried to defend them claiming that they were “banter”, an excuse that was not accepted. Lindy West isn’t so sure. In response to a series of columns and an appearance on the FX show “Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell,” where she debated the issue with comedian Jim Norton, she was besieged by angry commenters who insulted her looks, questioned her comic bona fides and said that, well, she should be raped.This study was composed of one pilot study and two experiments. For each, male university students at the University of Granada volunteered to participate. In the pilot study, 49 participants answered questions on the violence of a particular rape scenario. Their responses were used to categorize each of the four rape scenarios as moderately or highly violent. All this normalises and diminishes violence towards women: if it is easy to laugh about, it is hard to take seriously. There is an obvious connection between misogynist discourse and violence because, as Maureen Younger of Laughing Cows says, "Women are always the butt of these jokes. It's never the perpetrator". In these gaudy rooms, the indifference amazes. Rape and sexual abuse * If you've been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999 In other words: when everyone has calmed down from whatever happened before the joke was made, there is less tension in the room, and it’s easier to laugh about it . And the response is, of course no one can imagine that,” he says. “Because that’s what privilege looks like.”