http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/sandra-hawken-diaz/rapeface-meme_b_4136653.html#slide=1742173
So, first of all, one of my residents sent me this link. She told me she decided to look at it because she knew I was passionate about "this stuff." I'm pretty stoked that I influenced someone to look into an issue!
Okay, I'm done bragging.
Before reading this article, I had never heard of this rape face meme. Sadly, I am not at all surprised that this became a popular thing. It's things like this that make me want to pull my hair out. As a society, we belittle sexual assault to such an extreme that we aren't even aware that we are doing it, and unfortunately it seems like our generation is the worst about making rape a joke. All of the time we hear things like, "That test just raped me" or hear people using it to describe getting beat in a video game. I cannot imagine what it is like for a person who has been sexually assaulted to hear the word "rape" and laughter in the same breath.
This is disturbing. I searched the hashtag #rapeface on instagram and it came up with 40,501 post using this tag. How do people find this funny.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this Kirsten! What I liked about this article was that it addressed a point that I often feel is lacking- people who use such colloquial terms do not necessarily intend harm. As the author notes, her son was enlightened on many feminist issues, but failed to see why "rapeface" could be offensive-- this kid wasn't attempting to do harm, but rather stumbled into something offensive through lack of reflection and critical thinking. In other words, as we have discussed in class, we shouldn't just yell people into being PC, but rather educate them into being more compassionate. I posted a link below from Louie CK's show, which I think is an interesting demonstration of this....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-55wC5dEnc (referenced part starts about 4 min in)
I am disgusted by the #rapeface. I feel very defeated sometimes when I hear about things like this because it just adds to another thing that needs to be sorted out in society. Education is key here. People need to learn that rape is not something to be laughed about. Instead, it is something to cry over. I was shocked that this word is being used by 12 yr olds, and just shows how deep patriarchy goes into our childhoods
ReplyDelete