This is something that happened to a friend of mine in her own words.
“So, on Friday night my friend and I were at her house and wanted to get out and do something for the evening. We brainstormed ideas and she brought up the idea of seeing a show at the Laugh Factory. I’d never been, I thought it sounded fun, so we went. We saw that Dane Cook, along some other names we didn’t recognize we’re playing, and while we both agree that Cook’s style is not really our taste we were opened-minded about what the others had to offer. And we figured even good ol’ Dane can be funny sometimes, even if it’s not really our thing. Anyhoo, his act was actually fine, but then when his was done, some other guy I didn’t recognize took the stage. Of course, I would find out later this was Daniel Tosh, but at the time I thought he was just some yahoo who somehow got a gig going on after Cook. I honestly thought he was an amateur because he didn’t seem that comfortable on stage and seemed to have a really awkward presence.
So Tosh then starts making some very generalizing, declarative statements about rape jokes always being funny, how can a rape joke not be funny, rape is hilarious, etc. I don’t know why he was so repetitive about it but I felt provoked because I, for one, DON’T find them funny and never have. So I didnt appreciate Daniel Tosh (or anyone!) telling me I should find them funny. So I yelled out, “Actually, rape jokes are never funny!”
I did it because, even though being “disruptive” is against my nature, I felt that sitting there and saying nothing, or leaving quietly, would have been against my values as a person and as a woman. I don’t sit there while someone tells me how I should feel about something as profound and damaging as rape.After I called out to him, Tosh paused for a moment. Then, he says, “Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by like, 5 guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her…” and I, completely stunned and finding it hard to process what was happening but knowing i needed to get out of there, immediately nudged my friend, who was also completely stunned, and we high-tailed it out of there. It was humiliating, of course, especially as the audience guffawed in response to Tosh, their eyes following us as we made our way out of there. I didn’t hear the rest of what he said about me.
Now in the lobby, I spoke with the girl at the will-call desk, and demanded to see the manager. The manager on duty quickly came out to speak with me, and she was profusely apologetic, and seemed genuinely sorry about what had happened, but of course we received no refund for our tickets, but instead a comped pair of tickets, although she admitted she understood if we never wanted to come back. I can imagine the Laugh Factory doesn’t really have a policy in place for what happens when a woman has to leave in a hurry because the person onstage is hurling violent words about sexual violence at her. Although maybe I’m not the first girl to have that happen to her.I should probably add that having to basically flee while Tosh was enthusing about how hilarious it would be if I was gang-raped in that small, claustrophic room was pretty viscerally terrifying and threatening all the same, even if the actual scenario was unlikely to take place. The suggestion of it is violent enough and was meant to put me in my place.”
Please reblog and spread the word.
TRIGGER WARNING.
“RAPE CREW” COACH BLATANTLY DENIES COVER-UP, BLAMES “ANONYMOUS” FOR PERPETUATING FALSE CLAIMS
Two football players kidnapped a sixteen-year-old girl who was possibly drugged and too drunk to resist and took her to several parties where she was then raped. THE EVENT WAS EVEN LIVE-TWEETED BY THE PEOPLE INVOLVED.
From the NYT website: “Twitter posts, videos and photographs circulated by some who attended the nightlong set of parties suggested that an unconscious girl had been sexually assaulted over several hours while others watched. She even might have been urinated on. In one photograph posted on Instagram by a Steubenville High football player, the girl, who was from across the Ohio River in Weirton, W.Va., is shown looking unresponsive as two boys carry her by her wrists and ankles. Twitter users wrote the words “rape” and “drunk girl” in their posts.”
Local parents and authorities in Steubenville, OH are invested in covering the story up, claiming the girl “made it up” to cover up the fact that she drank too much and was out late, and that it’s ruining their football program - despite the fact that there is evidence of these boys laughing and talking about the rape on video and through social media as it happens. DON’T LET THESE SICK BASTARDS GET AWAY WITH IT JUST BECAUSE THEY’RE PRECIOUS FOOTBALL PLAYERS.
(Sidenote: “Dead” is a euphemism for “drugged”.)
HOW ARE WE AT A POINT WHERE WE WILL DEFEND RAPISTS EVEN WHEN THEY HAVE TWEETED, POSTED A PHOTO, AND RECORDED A VIDEO BLATANTLY ADMITTING - BOASTING ABOUT - THE FACT THAT THEY RAPED SOMEONE? WHAT THE EVER-LOVING FUCK.
VIDEO of the rapists’ gloating. Warning: the video is disgusting. In the twelve-minute original, some fucked up shit is said, but what stuck out the most was when someone got disgusted and went to go check on the rape victim and asked Michael (the guy telling all the jokes), “What if that was your daughter/sister?” And he replied, “I wouldn’t care.”#oprollredroll
There are more tweets than this even. He also brags about peeing on her. He also calls her the “whore” everyone is talking about (or it might have been another football player but in any case it was said).
It’s really the most disgusting thing I’ve heard about in a LONG time. Especially made worst because this town has shown that they care more about these sociopathic football players (not just including the rapists but the girls’ ex bf who orchestrated it & all the people who stood by and watched and even recorded it on their phones and etc, and the people who make fun of her instead of standing in solidarity with her) and the community is on THEIR side and doesn’t care whatsoever for the girl who was victimized.
And part of it is money I’m sure. Because that football team brings in a lot of revenue. But the bigger factor is that they’re operating within a culture that is uncaring of violence done against women. So boys/ men feel like they can do whatever they want to women no matter how sadistic and violent and other men (and even unenlightened women) will turn a blind eye.
(Source: feminist-space, via pissykitty)
"Men should be offended when someone claims that women should prevent rape by not wearing certain things or not going certain places or not acting in a certain way. That line of thinking presumes that you are incapable of control. That you are so base and uncivilized that it takes extraordinary effort for you to walk down the street without raping someone. That you require certain dress code be maintained, that certain behaviors be employed so that maybe today, just maybe, you won’t rape someone. It presumes that your natural state is rapist."
(via moniquebella)
(Source: mehreenkasana, via pepperminttealeaves)
does anyone else feel the same way about that “test your drink for roofies” product?
i really need people to stop acting like some miracle product is going to eradicate rape culture
why would we rather burden people everywhere (financial resources, mental energy, etc.) with their own safety rather than hold fucking rapists and people who drug drinks accountable and teach young people to be decent
THERE SHOULD NOT BE A MARKET THAT PROFITS FROM WOMEN’S SAFETY / FEAR OF RAPE
UGH MAKES ME LIVID
I agree and disagree with you at the same time. I think the product isn’t aiming to erase rape culture, it’s trying to help women operate within it.
That being said, it also in its own way upholds rape culture by giving women another way to to incorporate the fear of being raped into their everyday lives & nights out. And it takes the responsibility out of the hands of the perpetrator and into the hands of the victim.
So it’s totally awful product, but I don’t think it’s trying to be. I think the creators were trying to be helpful but missed the mark. But I feel like the creation of products & ideas like these and the subsequent critique is necessary to further the discourse on sexual assault.the description of the product in the post said this :
“So Tumblr. You’re notorious for attacking rape culture; just think how much this could do to fix that problem. At time of posting DrinkSavvy is at $2,500 of its $50,000 goal. Let’s signal boost it.”
i myself would never deduce this product was aiming to erase rape culture. it was the text in the post that first brought up this idea and that made me really, really angry. eradicating rape culture is just another sales angle, and it doesn’t even make sense in the context it’s being used, which just shows crappy manipulation skills. (although maybe i’m wrong because the post has SO many notes.)
i suppose someone could argue that this helps women operate within rape culture, but the flip side is it’s just further fodder for the thinking “she deserved it because she wasn’t _________”. y’know, where the blank is every precaution women have to take to feel safe and to be treated as if they deserve safety. :/
it’s a complicated issue and one that i think deserves continuous dialogue.
(Source: petitsirena, via petitsirena)
President Obama responds to rape statement (below) from Senate candidate Richard Mourdock:
“I struggled with it myself for a long time but I came to realize, life is a gift from god and even if life begins in the horrible situation of rape it is something god intended to happen.”
(Source: michaeldelzotto, via karnythia)
Tumblr: Where rape jokes aren’t funny unless you make video playthroughs, in which case you’re a poor bullied soul.
(Source: syntheticaudio)
i made it rebloggable
yes, think of the poor guy who made rape jokes and got called out on his bullshit :( it must be so hard for him, being called out on ignorant statements. gosh aren’t people just so up in arms over every little detail?
(Source: h0mulily)
"32,101"
The number of pregnancies that result from rape every year in the United States
Relevant to both Todd Akin and every pro-lifer who says pregnancies from rape “aren’t that common” or “don’t happen enough to matter.”
Hey, Tumblr, can we get this post liked and/or reblogged at least 32,101 times?
(via heidi8)
Reblog
(via searchingforknowledge)
You heard OP! Let’s signal boost this thing!
—BB
(via fuckyeahsexpositivity)
(via fsufeministalumna)
(Source: mackiejunior, via zellas)
TW: Rape, discussions of sexual assault and violence, drug use, health matters.
MSF.TV | Watch how Grannies fight back in a Kenyan Slum
At this Kenyan slum, grannies are raped and beaten by boys young enough to be their grandchildren. The “kung fu grannies” gather at community meetings to teach themselves self defense, and bravely fight back offenders—“Before there was a lot of fear. But thanks to the training, we now feel free.”
An incredibly powerful film with so many layers that need to be addressed and dissected, concerning the lives of these resilient women and what they endure daily. So much more needs to be done to ensure the protection of these women, the children in their care and the communities in which they live - especially concerning HIV/AIDS education initiatives.
P.S. I’m hoping that one of the MSF doctors helped treat Yvonne’s foot.
(via thisisnotafrica)
I’m gonna wait until I see some evidence, rather than condemn the man for what he is alleged to doOut of all the UK media outlets talking about the upcoming documentary on Jimmy Saville, this is the first person I’ve seen not try to brush it off as “a man with a character” or “silly stories”.
louis theroux is a pretty fantastic person. jimmy saville, however, is vile.
The allegations have been going on for years though- but he was always protected because he was this media personality, and because he did x he couldn’t possibly do y.
Not to mention that, when it comes to sexual assault, it’s vastly under-reported and rarely taken seriously when it is. As a society we’re quick to believe someone’s a murderer, but to believe someone’s sexually assaulted another person we brush it off, immediately cite “lack of evidence” and tell the victims to think of their abuser and how they’re going to ruin that person’s life or legacy.
(Source: syntheticaudio, via syntheticaudio)
Recap of this week’s fuckery:
[TW: Racism, Lynching, Violence, Rape]
- People examine the “humanity” of Hitler.
- A man fakes depression and scams people out of approximately $50,000. He then releases an “apology” where he says he’s not sorry for stealing the money and he states that he believes that depression isn’t real.
- Testing revealed that the only DNA on the gun George Zimmerman had on him the night he killed Trayvon Martin was his own.
- A northwest Austin man lynched an empty chair from a tree in his yard. The empty chair was meant to represent the President. When asked about the display, the man said “I don’t really give a damn whether it disturbs you or not. You can take [your concerns] and go straight to hell and take Obama with you. I don’t give a shit. If you don’t like it, don’t come down my street.”
- Everyone’s favorite racist grandpa, Pat Buchanan, called President Obama a “drug dealer of welfare.”
- Aboriginal petroglyphs were destroyed by vandals armed with acid and a drill.
- 40 Days for Life displayed some horrifically racist posters at the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
- Rep. Peter King admits he doesn’t care what fact check says.
- A 13 year old black child was hit by an unmarked police car in Hempstead, NY. They refused to take him to the hospital until he was processed at the police station.
- Lady GaGa parades around in a see through burqa.
- Vegans compare raped women to artificially inseminated cows while simultaneously defending Lady GaGa parading around in an insulting approximation of a burqa.
- White Feminism™ was forever in the wrong.
- Jessica Valenti and other White Feminists™ thought it was their place to discuss and criticize black motherhood.
- Tumblr user trevortherelentless took it upon himself to post his Islamophobia in the Mass Effect tag.
- Tumblr user frederpking thinks it’s totes ok and not racist at all to throw around the word n**ger.
It’s not even Friday yet. What the hell people. What. The. Hell.
and those last two could actually be expanded to include at least half of tumblr and their post-racial bullshit.
: So a Girl Walks into a Comedy Club…. (tw: rape)
(via karnythia)