On why rape jokes aren't funny

If this doesn’t convince you that rape jokes aren’t funny, I don’t know what will.

I quoted in the past about rape jokes and how they reinforce rapists, but now I’ve found an excellent post which goes in length into this, speaking from a personal experience as a rape victim, no less, and how it affects them.

laughing at/telling rape jokes is a pretty clear indicator of how little you can personally identify with the very real consequences of a very real act, just like laughing at/telling lynching jokes is a pretty clear indicator that you’re so so so white, and have never known and will never know somebody who was lynched (though you might know somebody who did the lynching).

Wholeheartedly suggested.

Also this.

So, here is my challenge for those who want to tell rape jokes:

Ask every woman in your life if she has been sexually assaulted. Ask her to tell you her story. This means your mother, your sister, your girlfriend, your grandma.

Once you have heard all their stories, go watch a movie with a rape scene in it. One you didn’t mind before. One you thought people were overly offended by.

Now tell me a joke.

9 thoughts on “On why rape jokes aren't funny”

  1. Actually, I've been raped once and sexually assaulted another time, and I think rape jokes are hilarious! Who are you to tell me that I cannot find it funny?

    1. He is suggesting that people understand cause and effect and not encourage an entire culture that excuses rape. This isn't about what you think is funny. You can laugh internally and still discourage the promotion of rape. Your experience doesn't negate the fact that rape jokes normalise rape. Please read the actual post.

    2. Uhh…as someone who has actually occupied the lived reality and world of a rape survivor, you KNOW what rape is like actually. That means that YOU actually ARE qualified to make jokes about rape. Lots of rape survivors make jokes that make fun of rapists' inhumanity, and their inability to empathize with humans. Sometimes you have to laugh not to cry.

      But a survivor's snarky complaint is TOTALLY DIFFERENT from a man telling a joke centered around rape. "Rape joke" is referring (usually) to dismissals of rape survivor's very real pain, in the thin guise of a "joke" (that generates nervous laughter, at best), usually the punch line is She actually DID want it/actually DID deserve her rape, these jokes are usually told by men, who haven't been raped themselves, but who might have raped someone, and when you laugh, every rapist hears a "fellow bro" laughing and condoning rape, and he gets a little more confident that his yes is more important than her no.

  2. No, rape jokes aren't funny, but male genital mutilation is hilarious. Ask Sharon Osbourne and the cast of The Talk. Anyone question why the victim's name was printed? Could it be that men's pain, emotional and physical is disregarded by society at large? I guess Mr. Becker should just man up, suck it up, grow a pair.

    1. I wasn't aware Sharon Osbourne was representative of feminism. Huh…well thanks for bringing it up during our rape joke discussion!

  3. Just because you don't know any funny rape jokes doesn't mean that there aren't any. Maybe you just haven't heard a good one yet.

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