*Insert Rape Joke Here*
What’s that, another rape joke? You think your funny, don’t you? You think it’s funny to make jokes about something that happens so often. Do you hear the silence falling around you, because I do. How could you ever joke about something that is so violent, destructive and heartbreaking? A person violated another human being in one of the worst ways imaginable and you just decided to joke about it. You decided to joke about something that will change someone’s life, something that they will never be able to erase from their memories. And you think that it’s funny.
I know, I know, get over it. You are just being a silly girl. Lighten up; it’s just a joke. That’s what everyone usually says, right? No, it isn’t just a joke. It isn’t just a joke to survivors. It will never just be a joke. The only people who have the right to joke about rape are the people who have lived through it, and they would never do that because they don’t think it’s funny. They will never think it’s funny.
There is no multi-purpose use for the word rape. You can’t just use it whenever you feel like it. Unless you’re using it to describe an herb related to mustard that is grown as a forage crop for its seeds. In that case, carry on. Rape is not what happens when a sports team beats another sports team by a wide margin. Rape is not what happens when your electric bill is higher this month than it was last month. And no one raped your head. Rape is and will always be a violent, violation of another person male or female (and that is putting it lightly).
One in five women will be sexually assaulted on a college campus. I know you know the statistic – we all know it. In the United States a sexual assault occurs every two minutes. Almost every single day, I get a text that informs me that a new forcible sex offense has occurred on campus. Whether it is known or unknown every time I see that text my heart breaks a little more. If this were an illness it would be an epidemic. I don’t know about you but I don’t think that is funny.
We all saw what happen with the bold survivor who stood up to Brock Turner. Even though she stood up to him, he still got off early. She didn’t ask for him to violate her, and she certainly didn’t ask for him get off early. He still gets to walk around and move on while she tries to work through what he did to her. She may never be the same because of that awful man and you made a joke out of that?
I know that you didn’t mean to be insensitive and that you just thought you were making a joke. But if someone doesn’t point it out, then it will never stop. You need to know that what you are doing is wrong. Change your vocabulary and only use the word rape when referring to a violent crime because that is what it is.
So before you make that joke take a minute and think about what you are about to say. Is your joke really funny? Because, in this case, the answer should always be no.
