Slut-shaming vs. Rape jokes

[krystalimage]

As a prelude to this blog post, I should probably mention that through interning with the Feminist Majority Foundation, I've been reading a lot of feminist blogs, in order to write more blogs. Since my formal education has been primarily focused on International Political science and Anthropology, reading all these blogs is doing wonders for my

Comments

[kakkobean]

My usual response to rape jokes is, "Dude, not funny". I hear them often enough in context of my interests, like last week in Gaming club when some people in the Scion campaign were repeatedly making them. I am lucky enough that there was someone sitting in between me and said rape-joker, and even luckier that said person sitting between me and rape-joker had the sense of mind to whack the juvenile on the head (only turned 18 this year, so really, quite juvenile) repeatedly. Not to say that I condone violence, but boys will be boys, and playful pushing is how they communicate.

As to slut-shaming, I really don't know what to do most times, since the grand majority of slut-shaming is done by the girls around me. Granted, I think that slut-shaming isn't so much an isolated thing so much as it is just a symptom of our culture, how we like shaming people into agreeing with our point of view (like people trying to get me to drink alcohol, people trying to get you to eat meat, people quoting random bible passages to get others to stop behaving in ways that the quoter finds inappropriate or merely different from their own viewpoint, etc).

Jaime wrote something in her blog about how she was getting angry at this one guy who pretty much is a dick in all the subtle "I think we should be able to laugh about anything aka rape jokes amuse me". I think that to a degree, yes, some things we should be able to look at in another perspective and find humor--HOWEVER, there are some things that people are naturally distant from, that they find humor in because they haven't even tried to understand the full...everything about it. For instance: I watch a cartoon that makes fun of WWII and I am okay with that (because some of the events outside of "rarrr evil nazis commies and fascists" crap, there was some ridiculous stuff going on), but the Holocaust was not, and never will be, a laughing matter--nor will the nuclear bomb attacks of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Guys find rape jokes funny because hell, they're not institutionally conditioned to worry that their "purity" might get taken away from them by a mysterious dark shadow that's lurking around the corner.

Prejean is a whole 'nother can of worms.

[kakkobean]

Also, in regards to rape jokes and rape culture etc, I think this is an entry you'd like(well, not necessarily LIKE, but find interesting and relevant):
http://transpolyasexual.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/asexuality-and-rape/
It touches on how the issue of "is it rape?" shouldn't necessarily focus on whether there was consent, but enthusiasm.

[kakkobean]

gah, sorry, here's another one about rape culture
http://yesmeansyesblog.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/this-is-what-rape-culture-looks-like/

[krystalimage]

Prejean is a homophobic bigot who has the mistaken belief that because she was a participant in the Miss USA pageant that she is somehow just as qualified a speaker and "activist" as people who have worked hard and have interesting things to say. But as a society, we should be complaining about those traits--her intolerance, her inability to form complete sentences--rather than her sexual nature that patriarchal influences claim do not belong to her, but to whichever male chooses to exert power over her.

[kakkobean]

exactly the can of worms I was referring to. People are too focused on shaming her for her "illicit activities" rather than addressing the things about her that just--gah. Part of that is because she herself refuses to talk about anything else other than her being a victim of circumstance, and when people try to bring up a point about something that she said that was offensive to her standpoint instead of her sex tapes or whatever have you, she closes down and walks off the set. Gah. Activist, indeed.

"ïllicit"

[krystalimage]

Technically "illicit" means "illegal" and as far as I know being taped masturbating isn´t illegal (unless you´re under the age of 18, in which case whoever taped you is fucking creepy)

Re: "ïllicit"

[kakkobean]

I'm actually referring to her breaking contract with the beauty pageant and using money from said pageant to pay for plastic surgery while participating in said pageant. Because somehow she thought that people wouldn't notice her boobs grew a size since the last time she was on television.

it's not illegal to tape yourself masturbating, though depending on where you post it could be doing something illegal (like on youtube)

Re: "ïllicit"

[krystalimage]

WOW. I had no idea about that.

Re: "ïllicit"

[kakkobean]

Yeeeeaaaah it's why the pageant sued her in the first place. While you participate in the pageant, you're under obligation not to pursue any other kind of modeling jobs. Not only did she use money from the pageant for plastic surgery (which is kind of like cheating in a science fair project, you know, after seeing what other people have done, you tweak your project to make it look better instead of working with your original submission kind of deal?), the reason why they were all "NUUU WHY YOU DO THAT" regarding her posing as an underwear model is because she was doing it when she was under contractual agreement to NOT do it, therefore violating her position in the contest. So. I find it hard to accept her as an activist when she's trying to set herself up as a martyr for getting persecuted for criminal acts, which, you know, are criminal and therefore should be prosecuted for. She's basically trying to play the sexism card to get away with something that has nothing to do with being sexist per se.