Language: “the system of communication use by a particular community or
country“ (google.com)
I’m getting really frustrated with Judd Apatow comedies and their numerous rape scenes where the male main character or the quirky male side kick get raped by a “forward” woman or by a stupid oblivious opposite. This type of joke continually is repeated in these comedies, you think we would get tired of them and how lightly they
take the idea of having someones sexual autonomy away.
This genre of movie has become really popular in the 20-40 male crowd. Ideas of rape being funny add to the language and culture that make it appear okay for women to rape and, the hilarity of each scene backed with a laugh track make it appear okay and laughable to rape in general.
I will never forget my training at the Sexual Assault Center when they played scenes from recent movies and T.V shows without the automated laugh track in the background. It is harder to laugh at rape when other people aren’t laughing. It’s harder to laugh at rape when it’s not a societally accepted joke.
According to Marcus our language continually positions women as the victim and as being rapable, but if we look at women being continually positioned as being raped, we are continually positioning men as either perpetrators or impenetrable to rape. Thus, we are perpetuating rape culture. This trend of language and communication that portrays that it’s okay to rape a man because it’s funny impacts mens idea of rape in general and positions men as never being an appropriate subject or victim of rape. This idea of men always being a perpetrator creates an inequality that positions men as being more powerful and able to rape women and also stimulates a silence of
victims that are afraid of their experience being one that’s feminine, laughable and not legitimate.
I think humour and comedy are such telling attributes of culture. It differs so greatly from place to place, even if the language is shared, for instance many of us can distinguish “dry British humour” from American comedy. Like you said, what we are willing to laugh about and how we frame those jokes identify cultural values and norms. Both in the examples you provided, and in often told prison rape jokes the victims are being belittled and laughed at. This is unacceptable and disgusting. However, I think other comedians, like Amy Shumer have used humour to address rape culture and its implications. In her sketch, Football Town Nights* a new coach tells the players that there will be absolutely no raping on his team. The players immediately put up a fight, and give scenarios in which the coach may allow it. The coach is adamant, on his team there is a strict no rape rule. However, in one of the last scenes of the sketch the coach exclaims: "How do I get through to you boys that football isn't about rape? It's about violently dominating anyone who stands between you and what you want. That other team – they ain't just gonna lay down and it give it to you. You gotta go out there and take it!"
ReplyDeleteIn this sketch, the victims of sexual assault are never the targets of the joke. Instead rape culture and the forces that make sexual domination possible are highlighted in a way that can be easily understood. Comedy can be a tool to perpetuate rape culture and re-victimize survivors or it can work to undue cultural norms and perspectives that make up rape culture.
*The clip is not available in Canada, but this link leads to an article that describes the sketch:
http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/videos/amy-schumer-slams-rape-culture-with-friday-night-lights-parody-20150422
While rape should never be a joke, even more so, it should never be a source of entertainment. I think you bring up a great point, that more and more rape, and its consequences are being the end of a joke, yet we could even expand this to the larger entertainment industry, where rape is being used as a tool for entertainment. Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and many more use rape as another plot line, sexual violence as a way advancing a story or furthering a hero's character. Rape isn't the expectation, the same is happening with gun violence, abuse and murder, yet why is it that we need to romanticize or allow for this to become entertainment. Our society is more rapidly normalizing violence, and it's beginning to become more in our face and more popular.
ReplyDeleteSo, along with you, I agree that we need to move away from the 'humour' of rape as well as from the 'entertainment' of sexual violence. Not only does it reinforce rape culture and all of its consequences, it even further separates victims from their experience, because now it has become a joke. As you stated Chloe, this is prominent in the instances of men, especially in many of the entertainment aspects, the male character is always the hero/protector of those experiencing sexual violence.
Unfortunately rape is seen as something that can be joked about because in our society , it is still seen as a case to case situation . Some men like to use rape jokes especially to have a platform where they can have the power to downplay or shame women by using the social constructions placed on them against them. Why is it that when a woman claims rape at times the men accused say that she claimed rape maybe because she didn't want to be seen as a slut and regretted sleeping with him? The core problem is that rape is still tied to be perceived as a 'sexual act 'gone wrong. At times, Men are given the benefit of the doubt in society when they are accused of raping a women due to a variety of factors but what astonishes me is how some like to justify this act by claiming that men cannot control their sexual urges and that maybe the women had to play a part in that. Rape is advertised that it can be sexual especially in the media , with porn , it attracts men to think that could be a way to prove their masculinity and gain some sort of powertrip. The way society is constructed provides the oppurtunity for the media to use these rape myths for humour and seduction because they know that people are conditioned to think that it is tied to sex , instead of it being a traumatic physical and psychological tool used to overpower another human being. People like to think that these things happen only in places where there is war or in a back alley , someplace a women shouldnt place herself to be or isn't safe for her to be. Instead of acknowledging it as a social problem Which happens everywhere or anywhere. In a ideal society , the media would be used as a platform to deconstruct these rape myths with the way gender is tied to sexual violence and power relations.
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