Rape isn't a joke.

[knitter4democracy]

Apparently, the term "raped" is getting used in gamer language to mean something other than rape. There's an excellent blog post about it here:
http://www.notitles.com/?p=148

Rape isn't funny, and it shouldn't be used as a joke. Ever.

[stellanoir]

1. You noticed

been there done that.

Nobody cares.

[knitter4democracy]

6. Good people care.

After my sexual assault by a radiology tech, I got free counselling and all sorts of help from a local organization. They helped me get over my anxiety of ultrasounds and pelvic exams, try to report it to the police, and everything. Those women who helped me are amazing, and I know there are others out there like them.

[stellanoir]

9. Yeah I'm sure there are many helpful people out there.

I help many all the time.

[knitter4democracy]

12. Thank you for that.

:hug:

[PeaceNikki]

2. It shouldn't be used lightly ever.

There was a heated discussion on DU about use of this term to describe mating behavior of ducks recently. I'd never heard it used that way and was quite shocked, frankly.

[knitter4democracy]

4. I didn't see that.

That is shocking.

[PeaceNikki]

10. It was interesting that some people dismissed the emotion and pain behind the word.

being the party of compassion, I wouldn't have expected that here.

[knitter4democracy]

11. Those who did couldn't have been sexually assaulted or raped.

I don't know a single survivor who would ever use the term dismissively or as a joke.

[undergroundpanther]

34. Actually it is rape

Ducks gang rape female ducks,At a local pond I saw 5 male ducks mounting a female in the water.They were senseless and frenzied nearly drowning her,she was swimming as best as she could twords the shore.When she got close enough to me I knocked the males off her with a stick,yes I hit the males hard too,so they'd stay away,and she kept struggling twords me,as the ones I didn't smack down hard enough tried to re mount her..As she got closer,I stepped into the water in the shallows and waded up to my thighs,I scooped her nearly exhausted body out of the pond before she sank to her death.I wrapped her in a towel,held her against me to keep her warm, she was too exhausted to even struggle .I had my friend blast the heat on her as we drove ,she was shivering like crazy,She lived,but I had to take her to the vet to help her,she had water in her lungs and hypothermia and wounds from the rapist ducks.
Ducks will even rape dead ducks.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/research/story/0,9865,1432991,00.html

Nature is senselessly sadistic in it's slowness to protect victims with it's "evolution". Female ducks apparently are traumatized by rape like humans are.
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070501_duck.htm

Why can't ALL females of all species have a way to reject aggressive raping males and make those raping males fail so they will not get any of their selfish genes passed on???
And I agree with the OP..rape is no joke it is natures own horror show.It is torture and it is wrong and evil to the core I don't care what anyone says.One of the reasons I hate nature, is rape and despise this existence.All rapists should be dead or made incapable of rape all females should have defenses.They would nature had any sense of sanity,justice or respect for life it forces into this awful existence.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. There was a similar discussion about 'racist', too

Right here on DU. Very recently.

[bluestateguy]

5. In 1990, Clayton Williams made a rape "joke" and blew the TX Gov. race to Ann Richards

He was up 20 points in the polls.

Then again, had he won, he would have been governor for 8 years, rather than Baby Bush, and he is probably not president today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_Williams

While Texas had proven to be a stronghold to the Democratic party throughout the 20th century, the state had trended to the right. Sensing opportunity, Williams began his run for governor of Texas as a Republican. To win the Republican nomination, he turned aside a field of candidates that included former U.S. Representative and outgoing Railroad Commissioner Kent Hance of Lubbock, Clements' former secretary of state Jack Rains of Houston and Dallas lawyer Tom Luce, who supported abortion rights. The other candidates took anti-abortion positions, with exceptions in event of life of the mother, rape, or incest.

Williams spent freely from his personal fortune, running a "Good Old Boy" campaign initially appealing to conservatives. Prior to a series of legendary gaffes, he was leading Richards (the race was dubbed "Claytie vs. The Lady") by as much as twenty points in the polls, and was in striking distance of becoming only the second Republican governor of Texas since Reconstruction.

In one of his widely-publicized missteps, Williams refused to shake hands with Ann Richards in a public debate, an act seen as uncouth. Senator John Tower had similarly refused to shake the hand of Democratic opponent Robert Krueger in a 1978 appearance in Houston but went on to win a fourth term by the narrowest of margins.

Earlier, Williams made an infamous joke to reporters, likening bad weather to rape, quipping, "as long as it's inevitable, just relax and enjoy it". In addition, it has been claimed that as an undergraduate at Texas A&M, he had participated in visits to the Chicken Ranch, a well-known Texas brothel in La Grange, and the Boy's Towns of Mexico. His sense of humor was again demonstrated when he urged Hispanic Americans to support his candidacy because he met Modesta in a Mexican restaurant. As a result of his reported comments, Williams was occasionally parodied, such as in the mock political ad, "Satan Williams," which appeared on Dallas/Fort Worth public television during the 1990 campaign season.

Despite these political snafus, Williams only narrowly lost the election to Ann Richards, who actually polled under 50 percent of the raw vote possibly because of the presence of a Libertarian nominee. At his defeat on election night, Texas television stations showed the glib Williams telling his supporters in Austin: "I've got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that we lost; the good news is that it is not the end of the world."

[knitter4democracy]

7. That's a terrible comment.

Enjoy it?! That man has no idea what the hell he's talking about. Good thing he lost the race.

[musette_sf]

13. NYC weatherman Tex Antoine

went down in 1976 for the exact same joke.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tex_Antoine

[ismnotwasm]

8. No it's not

Be prepared for the "lighten up" crowd though.

[InsultComicDog]

25. lighten up

(sike)

I will say, though, that from a word usage standpoint, there are other uses for rape that have been in use for a long time (and not just the plant that produces canola oil). For example, a rape of justice. The soldiers raped the beautiful country.

I think though that the more controversial usages linguistically would be the sense that means "totally dominated", as in "my team got raped on the field today." Which is kind of the same sense that the hackers and gamers have adopted.

[seabeyond]

14. in our culture, today, it is used as entertainment for our masses. do tell

how it wouldnt be made less and become a joke for so many

we create

we create .... the society we live. if rape is so prevelent, a joke, entertainment... the more appropriate thing would to be question why

[karab]

15. family name

When I was growing up there was a family whose name was Rape. I could never believe it, and would have changed my name. How would a rape victim feel when being confronted by someone with such a name.

[knitter4democracy]

16. That's a good point.

Why is it so prevalent? I think it's a complicated mess of several factors, but it's essentially an act of dominance. Why do some feel the need to dominate others to the point of rape?

[stillcool]

18. I have a theory about abuse..

as a foster kid growing up I experienced a different kind of life than some do. It seems to me that when human beings are free to take out their rage, disappointment, lack of power on others, without fear of consequences they will do so. I think that feeling of power that is sated by abuse, enables the abuser to view the victim as less than human. And all you need is one to kick off a little mob mentality where perverse cruelty is seen as okey-dokey. Whether it be a police force, a prison system, or a foster home..and when people start off with that shit as children it is their 'normal'. I think that the lack of family units, due to all kinds of 'political policies' ensures that the cycles will not only continue but be more widespread throughout our society. Just my thoughts.

[CoffeeCat]

24. I'm so sorry for what you endured...

...and I think you are spot on in your analysis of abusers.

I just have to say, that it really takes an astute, resillient person to endure abuse and then
grow up to be a person who has such clarity and understanding. Not all abuse victims end
up with such clarity of thought. I commend you.

I remember my therapist trying to help me understand the mentality of my abuser, by helping me to understand
that I was an object. Or as you said, "less than human." Abusers abuse children to give themselves a sense
of power and control. Victims are literally reduced to objects for extracting a high.

It's a long way back. Your sensitivity and understanding of abuse is no doubt guiding you back to
a good place.

Thanks for sharing your insight. :hug:

[stillcool]

26. Thank you...but it really is nothing..

that I have done...other than breathe in and out. Sometimes it seems that the only way we human beings learn about who we really are is through pain. Bittersweet. I think we just see things through a different lens, and making sense of it..or getting people to see what we see is not easy. :hug:

[knitter4democracy]

28. I think you're right, that they have to dehumanize their victim in their mind.

In order to make what they're doing "okay," they can't see their victim as fully human with real needs, desires, dreams. Instead, the person becomes an object to act out on. A woman becomes "anywoman" or "everywoman" and tapes start to play in the rapist's head, and she stops being a real person.

[seabeyond]

31. of course. they have to disconnect from spirit, they cannot connect with vicitim spirit

or the feel remorse, guilt. it is all about dehumanizing. you betcha.

with so much of what we do to each other today.

that is why the rape in our entertainment is entertaining to some. they have to disconnect. and those that play it have to disconnect to do it. we all have to disconnect to hurt self, to hurt others.

[undergroundpanther]

35. A world without empathy

Is very profitable to psychopaths,warmongers ,thugs and globalists .

[Fumesucker]

17. When talking about prison life..

Lots of even progressive people will joke about "don't drop the soap"..

And then there is the everpresent wishing prison rape on certain offenders.. I've seen it that a lot.

[Jed Dilligan]

19. That's definitely a double standard you see here

Even the suggestion that a female felon of the most odious kind should be raped would be met with extreme outrage. But everyone laughs at the more widespread sexual abuse of male inmates.

[lukasahero]

20. Not everyone

Seriously - to say that is a lie. Many of us, especially those who defend female victims, are the same ones who defend male victims. Anyone who jokes about any rape is an insensitive idiot.

[Jed Dilligan]

22. I was exaggerating

There are large numbers of people who do, judging from both the ubiquity of such posts on threads about crime and punishment, and the dearth of people challenging and (presumably) alerting them.

[Fumesucker]

33. If you challenge such people..

You will very quickly get called a "bleeding heart" or "soft on crime" or some other similar crap.

[Berry Cool]

23. Some otherwise very progressive people have a ways to go in that area.

It would be nice to think that they will all eventually realize that such jokes are tasteless.

[knitter4democracy]

29. That's not funny, either.

It's just plain wrong.

[New Dawn]

30. I read that around 1 in 5 US prisoners get raped

A sociology professor that I had a while back, also said something along the lines of "1 in 4 young women are coerced into having unwanted sex, while 1 in 5 young men are also coerced into having unwanted sex as well."

I point this out, because popular culture seems to act as if only women get raped. Many men also seem uncomfortable acknowledging the existence of male rape victims, because 'being raped' is seen as not being masculine. This is related to the myth that "men will fuck anything" and that they "always want sex" - so many people believe that it is "impossible" for a man to have unwanted sex (with a woman).

[Prophet 451]

21. I noticed that too

I'm a pretty serious gamer and I'd noticed that cropping up and had shouting matches over Teamspeak because of it.

Oh, and FYI guys, it isn't funny when it happens to a guy either, even in prison.

[VotesForWomen]

27. i cringe when i hear people (usually men) casually use the word rape as a figure of speech. nt

[timtom]

32. Interestingly enough,

in the late 1950's and early 1960's it WAS often treated as a joke.

The musical, The Fantasticks, even had a dubious patter song called the "Rape Ballet". It struck me as curiously in bad taste even then.

I do not recall myself as ever having made light of rape, even then.

[knitter4democracy]

36. My mom was in high school then.

She managed to get away from a guy who wanted to rape her on their date and walk down the mountain to get to a phone, and she was sexually assaulted twice as a child. It's still something she deals with, all these years later.

[raccoon]

37. In those days, the phrase "date rape" didn't exist, nor did the concept.

They didn't until the women's movement.

[Prophet 451]

39. No such thing

"Date rape" doesn't exist, it doesn't ceome less terrible with dinner and flowers beforehand. "date" rape is just plain rape, the modifier is unnecessary.

[timtom]

40. Here's the scary part...

back then, we males believed that "no" didn't really mean no. We thought it was a part of the courting ritual. I am guilty of pushing my advantage, but never at the tune of force -- just persistence. If the "ritual" went on too long (more than 5 minutes, say) I would give up the chase and (I swear!) the evening would end amicably.

What's scary is, of those who relented in a shorter period of time, how many did so under the perceived notion of force?

[TCJ70]

38. That's been going on for years...

...doesn't make it right. But it's nothing new.

[Wizard777]

41. Congress seems to think it is. The punchline is here's your next contract KBR.

:wow:

[cemaphonic]

42. gamer culture = 13-year old boys

Yeah, it's stupid and offensive, but it's nothing new. Matt Groening's take on junior high/middle school:

“The
deepest pit in Hell. By isolating us
from grade school kids, we will be
less likely to torture them. By isolat-
ing us from high school kids, we will
be less likely to receive the beatings
we so richly deserve.”