“Education about consent can start before education about sex. If we teach our children to respect others, they’ll grow into respectful adults.”
—webelieveyou.tumblr.com (in relation to this post)
YES THANK YOU
Friendly reminder that Microsoft thought it would be SO AWESOME to have a guy tell a girl “Just let it happen. It’ll be over soon.” while beating her in a videogame. On stage, during a press conference for their new game console.
This actually happened. What the fuck, Microsoft. Fuck you.
Edits: First of all, Microsoft has come out stating that the line wasn’t scripted: kotaku.com/the-trash-talk-during-microsofts-conference-was-awful-512330167
Secondly, here is a video of the presentation. The line is said at the 0.33 mark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHE0CQK1sZo
That said, it’s still Microsoft’s responsibility what happens during their press conference and as of yet, no apology or statement has been made.
Lindy West: If Comedy Has No Lady Problem, Why Am I Getting So Many Rape Threats?
jezebel.comOh goodie, you guys. We get to do the “no but for real, rape jokes aren’t funny and saying that doesn’t threaten your freedom of speech” runaround again. This time, Jezebel’s Lindy West is caught in the crossfire: she had the audacity to go on TV and say rape jokes aren’t funny, so naturally, the internet has responded by calling her names, threatening to rape her, and saying she’s too fat/ugly/lesbionic/man-hating to get raped.
I lost a lot of followers when I said Tosh shouldn’t have made a rape joke. And I’m prepared to lose followers over this issue again. Do. Not. Care. The facts are these:
- The comedy industry has a serious problem with representation by women.
- People in the comedy industry - Louis CK on The Daily Show, W. Kamau Bell on Totally Biased - think feminists are anti-comedy because we object to forcing rape survivors to laugh at their jokes.
- Somehow every fucking person in America becomes a Constitutional scholar when they get challenged on telling rape jokes. “What about my freedom of speech?” The First Amendment starts with “the government shall make no law…” which means that unless someone proposes a law against rape jokes you can go ahead and shut the fuck up.
Here’s the thing: There is no comedy slippery slope from saying “rape jokes aren’t OK” to there being NO MORE JOKES EVER AGAIN. We’re not saying don’t joke about murder or the Holocaust because you know what? Those things are taken seriously. Rape is not. Look at the rape statistics in the military, in America, in the world. Look at how rape is used as a tool of power against women. Look at how women are punished and demeaned with rape. Look at the dearth of resources for survivors. There are no museums to rape survivors. There are no monuments commemorating its victims. There are no walls with victims’ names carved in stone. Its victims are everywhere, and silenced, and taunted, and second-guessed, and dismissed. When people start telling the families of murder victims “but some people find the idea of murder sexy,” we’ll talk about murder jokes.
We don’t want you to joke about rape because joking is the only time you ever talk about rape. And it’s very, very rarely a joke about rape culture (which are allowed, even by us evil laughter-hating feminazis), and much more often a joke about someone you’d like to rape, or someone who deserves to get raped, or using “rape” as a funny verb because it’s a funny word to say. It usually triggers memories for people who went through a traumatic event and had no recourse against the person who perpetrated it or the society that all but encouraged it. Why would you do that on purpose? What’s funny or edgy about that? It’s lazy comedy.
So, again: stop joking about rape. Stop saying that feminists - who have almost zero representation at movie studios, TV executive boardrooms, comedy stand-up spots, and nighttime television - are threatening the comedy industry by saying a small percentage of the jokes are aggressively unfunny. Stop telling victims they have to laugh at your bad “jokes.” Just. Stop.
pretty much the worst thing a guy can expect to happen to him if he gets drunk and passes out at a party is getting drawn on, whereas women are apparently supposed to anticipate rape.
not to mention how blind drunk men are “lads” just “having a laugh” whereas a drunk woman is a “mess” and should “respect herself”
tell me again how sexism doesn’t exist
“ Dear Cannes Film Festival, Roman Polanski is a child rapist. I know I've written this exact same letter before, although last time it was to the British Film Institute. I'm sure you are bored of hearing this. I'm certainly finding writing this over and over and over again somewhat tedious but people seem to be struggling with this issue. Still. So, for the record, Roman Polanski is a convicted child rapist who is also a fugitive from justice. It doesn't matter how many "good" films he makes, or how many stupid people make excuses for him because he's an "artiste", Roman Polanski will always be a convicted child rapist. Roman Polanski gave a 13 year old a quaalude in champagne and then vaginally, orally and anally raped her. I know Polanski has trouble understanding the fact that raping children is a despicable crime for which he should still be in prison. After all, there are no end of rape apologists telling him that it was completely okay for him to rape a child [see: the entire audience the night he won the Oscar for the Pianist]. There is a reason he's blithering on about equality for women being a bad thing and the birth control pill "ruining romance". Polanski does not want to take responsibility for the child he was convicted of raping nor does he want anyone to question the clearly illegal sexual relationship he had with Natassja Kinski when she was only 15 years old. Every single person who pays to see Polanski's films is supporting rape culture. Every single actor who appears in a Polanski film is supporting rape culture. Every single organisation that gives Polanski awards for his films is supporting rape culture. Every single person who uses the word "historical" to refer to Polanski's rape conviction is supporting rape culture. Every journalist who does not mention Polanski's conviction for rape is supporting rape culture. Roman Polanski is a child rapist who fled from California because he did not want to go to prison. Roman Polanski gave a 13 year old a quaalude in champagne and then vaginally, orally and anally raped her. He should be in prison; not receiving awards at your Festival. Louise Pennington ”
—Louise Pennington
I am most definitely tired of seeing plot lines which feature a false rape accusation.
No wonder people think that that is actually a normal occurrence, when, in face, most rapes are never reported, most rapists go unpunished, and perhaps 1-2% of accusations are false.
The false rape plot line is supposed to be riveting? It’s overdone, boring, uncreative, and detrimental to my personhood.
“Does rape happen in nature? Yes, but how little do you think of men, human men, that you’re saying ‘you’re animals, you can’t control yourself, so you’re just gonna rape’, like it’s literally thinking the worst of men. It’s not like you do not have the power to not rape, you just don’t value women and so you rape them. It’s not like nature, like there’s this force that you can’t control that’s making you rape women. You don’t value women, you don’t have boundaries and so you violate them. It has nothing to do with the great force of nature.”
—Allison Kilkenny (in reaction to Senator Saxby Chambliss who blames military rapes on “The hormone level created by nature”)
It took Tumblr staff literally less than 24 hours to take down a blog that was warning off women about sexual predators and rapists. But creepshots has been up for at least three whole DAYS, (it could be longer, I just found out about it 3 days ago) and not a single, solitary peep from Tumblr staff.
What the fuck are you guys even doing? Jacking off to some unknown woman’s bum photo that was taken without her knowing, violating her space for daring to simply exist in public?
