Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Rape Jokes: Two Views

I personally know someone who was raped. It devastated her. Years later, she still isn't her old self. I don't find jokes about the subject even slightly funny.

View One:

Bret Alan-Rape Jokes Are Still Funny

Some think that the rest of the world cares how they feel. I assure you: no one gives a shit how you feel, except you. Anyone you talk to about your feelings is only listening to be polite and internally wishes you would shut the fuck up. Those who listen patiently to you probably want something from you, either sex or for you to return the favor and sit through their boring bullshit, but they may just want money or a promotion. This is why you have to pay therapists: no one cares about you or what you think or feel.

None of us are interesting, no matter how many boring people we manage to get to read our blog posts. Trust me.

...

For those who don’t know, Tosh supposedly said it would be funny if a heckler got raped. At one point, I was conversing with someone who was convinced that what Tosh said was wrong, wrong, wrong. When I disagreed, they proceeded to tell me what they hoped a large man would do to my rectum while he held me down. This was after some normal, polite discussion where neither of us insulted the other. It kind of took me off-guard how stupid the comment was.

As you might expect, I wasn’t insulted… I laughed, and it was the best rape joke I had heard in a while.

How can I take seriously a person who is so blatantly hypocritical? I’m meant to believe that joking about someone being raped is totally wrong for comedy purposes, but it’s okay for someone to tell me that I should be raped in order to make some sort of point. That almost makes sense… if you subscribe to the “do as I say, not as I do” school of ethics.

I think it's healthy that people make jokes about everything. The holocaust, rape, date rape, prison rape, pedophilia, child molestation, birth defects, 9/11, dead soldiers, dead celebrities, dead babies, having sex with the bodies of dead babies, kidnapping, mothers, sex with mothers, dead mothers, sex with dead mothers… really, there’s no end to what can be joked about. It’s all hilarious if you have the right timing and enough weed. I don't trust someone if they think there is a topic that is off-limits to humor. That person lacks basic control over their own emotions, and I find that to be far more dangerous than off-color jokes.-Rape Jokes Are Still Funny

View Two:

Francois Tremblay: Someone enjoys rape jokes, so they’re okay!

I hope I don’t have to dissect this. This “one person enjoys X, therefore X is okay!” is pure subjectivism and total bullshit. But that’s the bullshit you commit to when you commit to a position as nonsensical as voluntaryism. You end up supporting rape jokes.

...

Rape jokes are wrong because trivializing the rape culture is anti-women! No matter how much any given woman might enjoy it. What does someone’s enjoyment of a thing have to do with it being right or wrong?

Seriously JR, abandon this bizarre ethics of feelings and start thinking rationally about it. I’m not going to allow you to post comments that are against women any more than I allow comments that are anti-atheism or pro-government. People’s feelings are not a guide to reason or public policy.-Someone enjoys rape jokes, so they’re okay!

Read the complete posts at their respective links.

I approve of the following comment at Tremblay's post
Does every man have a right to enjoy telling hateful jokes about women, and should not be judged for doing so? I don’t get this. People are judged for things because we have morality. A woman has the right to judge others for herself, and others have the right to judge her judgment. A woman has the right to hate “niggers,” but does not have the right to “not be judged for doing so.”

You don't have to want to make something illegal to disapprove of it, or believe that favoring free speech means that you can't pass rational judgement on what people write and say.

8 comments:

  1. If what a person says can get them in trouble, there needs to be a list of topics that are off-limits. When I see a list everyone can agree on, I promise to never joke about those things.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I see Bret's point pretty clearly, probably because I like to use humor to make people think about what is unsettling/uncomfortable.

    To put it pretty simply, if you don't like to hear a certain kind of joke, don't listen.

    Personally, I find the humor of Will Ferrell insulting to my brain's abilities and especially the ability to find humor in things that don't need obvious over-work of the kind Ferrell seems to enjoy. Beating dead horses isn't funny to me, though apparently it is to Ferrell. He can make a whole 90 minute movie out of a single half-funny-and-getting-less-funny-as-time-passes concept. You know what I mean. Elf. Talladega Nights. Anchorman. The "joke" is funny for 10 seconds at the outset and thereafter is straining my sense of how more overplaying of that lone joke is supposed to be "funny."

    So I avoid Will Ferrell "comedies."

    Rape isn't funny ever, but I'd also say Will Ferrell comes pretty close on the "not funny ever" scale of humor.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "They are Just Jokes!"

    And a murder is just a series of movements. What's your point?

    "To put it pretty simply, if you don't like to hear a certain kind of joke, don't listen."

    Talk about blaming the victim...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm guess his point is that stick and stones will break his bones, but words only hurt pussies.

      Why am I not surprised that someone with laughable views would see the target of a joke to be a "victim?"

      Boo fucking hoo.

      Delete
    2. Why am I not surprised that a fucking asshole like you takes joy and even laughs at other people being attacked and hurt? That is what you machos are all about, isn't it? Hurting others, especially women?

      I only take any joy at the thought that one day people like you will be wiped off the planet...

      Delete
    3. I'll be wiped from the planet? Tough words for a pussy.

      Delete
    4. I didn't say *I* was going to do it... But historically, bigots always lose out eventually. That's just a fact, live with it.

      And I'd rather be a pussy than a dick. Pussies are very strong and flexible. Dicks are just pieces of spongious tissue that can reduce you to a state of pain and tears with one kick. A perfect metaphor for MRAs, actually...

      Delete

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