Trigger warning: rape, rape jokes
Let's get something straight: rape is not a joke.
This statement should be very obvious, but apparently, it's not.
On July 10, a blog post from the website Tumblr talked about an experience a woman had while seeing stand up from Daniel Tosh, the host of the Comedy Central show "Tosh.0."
After the woman yelled out "rape jokes are never funny" because of the amount of rape jokes Tosh was making, he responded with: "Wouldn't it be funny if that girl got raped by like, five guys right now?"
Oh, how hilarious, how mature. It's so funny to threaten an audience member. What a witty response.
On Twitter, Tosh replied to the post by saying he would like to "sincerely apologize" but then tried to defend his actions by saying "the point i was making before i was heckled is there are awful things in the world but you can still make jokes about them. #deadbabies"
The amount of horrible so-called apologies in the world is sort of terrifying.
So let's talk about how rape isn't funny.
When someone makes a rape "joke," their words are most likely going to be falling on the ears of a rape victim or a victim's family and friends. According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, one out of every six American women and one in 33 men has been a victim of an attempted or completed rape.
Sexual assault is an under reported crime, with 54 percent of the attacks left unreported, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey: 2006-2010 by the Justice Department. Out of every 100 rapes, 97 rapists will walk free.
So if you think about those statistics, when someone makes a rape joke, it could be triggering a victim. It's not even like I'm asking you to be super sensitive by saying stop trivializing rape with jokes nor is it violating anyone's free speech. I'm asking you to not be a jackass who takes other people into consideration. Is that so hard?
Popular comedians like Tosh aren't the only people cracking these jokes. I have a running tally at Ball State of how many days go by without me hearing rape jokes. The number is lower than I'd like it to be.
I often hear or read my peers saying things like "oh, that test just raped me" and other variations of that sentence. You know what rape isn't? Rape isn't a tackle, a hug, eye contact or an athletic loss, among other things. But time and time again, I see my peers think rape is an acceptable word for those situations.
It isn't.
If you're struggling to find the correct word, here's a few suggestions: obliterate, waste, annihilate, quash, demolish, crush, quell, vanquish, punch and ruin.
See, expanding vocabularies can be fun.
When comedians make rape jokes, it translates to the public that the behavior is fine. It continues the rape culture, especially when other comedians come to the rescue and whine about how comedians are allowed to make jokes about anything, that they're just making light of a bad situation.
Joking about rape doesn't help victims - especially when they aren't making the jokes - nor does it help fix how our culture heavily blames the victim instead of the rapist.
Besides, when Tosh threatened the audience member, saying how it'd be hilarious if she'd be raped right there, it isn't a joke. It's a poorly attempted comeback from an immature adult. Threatening people isn't cool and it isn't funny.
So why are people still laughing?
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