Comedy is
an arena largely dominated by white men, who have developed a
stranglehold on what our culture perceives as being
"funny". Since they make up the large majority of successful
comedians, they have the power to define what is funny and to tell
others that if they do not agree that they need to "loosen up" or
that "it's just a joke".
There has been a disturbing trend
of white male comedians dictating to women and people
of colour what they should find funny, and it
is largely accepted as being appropriate to excuse racism and sexism
as long as it is within the context of "humour". Now this brings us
to the subject of rape in comedy.
Rape is a serious
criminal offence which leaves victims traumatized and shaken. Rape is not a
crime about sex. It is about power and taking bodily autonomy from its victim.
Rape is not a joke, and never should be. Yet increasingly young men
are being told that rape is not only something trivial, but that it is humorous.
Violence against women and the "right" for a man to make jokes about
it has taken precedence over common decency and sympathy for rape
victims, who are framed as having deserved their assault.
Young men who were raised in the
Family Guy generation; where misogynistic and violent contempt
for women is veiled under the cloak of humour or entertainment are now fighting
for their right to laugh at the brutalization of rape victims. We have to ask
ourselves about how this sort of humour manifests itself in our daily
lives. Steubenville is a good place to start.
Events like Steubenville are the
result of young men having so little respect for the dignity of a young woman
that they thought posting video and pictures of her rape was funny. They
thought it was funny because they didn't think it was rape, and they didn't think
they'd be punished. She was drunk after all, and if she cannot say no, that
means yes. And afterwards it would be her fault.
We cannot divorce the
messages children and teens receive from the world around them with the
violence they commit later in life. A society that teaches young men that they
are entitled to the attention and affection of
all the women around them, and that makes light of violence ultimately breeds
criminals. Girls are constantly bombarded with mixed messages that inevitably
allow men to frame the cultural discourse about rape to one where the
victim is at fault and not the perpetrator. Is this what we want to teach our
children? That rape is just a fact of life for women that can be made light of?
Rape
jokes, although problematic in their own right are a mere symptom of
a much more troubling societal problem. A world where it is okay to be
dismissive of horrific sexual violence against women. That talks a
good talk but ultimately shrugs its shoulders and moves on when we see
cases like that of Rehtaeh Parsons or Steubenville.
We have to be weary of a culture of
increased glorification of sexual violence, and a world where teen boys often
have access to violent pornography that distorts their perceptions of what
healthy sex looks like. Parents need to have truthful and open conversations
with their sons and daughters about what consent is, and take a stand against
rape apology in our criminal justice system and media.
When rape stops being a joke, then
we can tackle the serious issues of sexual violence and the media. But little
is likely to change until public perceptions are altered and young men are
brought up to recognize that women are human beings that exist outside of their
personal sexual wish fulfillment. When young women are violated not only by
their rapist, but also by their peers and the authorities we know that we have
a serious problem with how our young people perceive rape, and that
has to change.