So...Rape
I tweeted this just a few minutes ago:
Sexual assault is only funny when it’s perpetrated via Twitter.
It was inspired by the fact that I had just threatened to ejaculate on the face of a fellow Twitterer, and her response was to laugh and thank me. People are constantly threatening to rape each other on Twitter (although frequently via less direct language), and I find it strange that it’s all taken in stride as “web-talk”, when such activity would never be advocated in nearly any other social setting. A few minutes later, I received this reply:
Fuck you. Sexual assault is never funny
I don’t know the person who sent it very well, and since it was a public reply and not a private message I have no idea how to take this. Is somebody genuinely offended, or is somebody just playing me in the way that people do on Twitter? I don’t know, and really, I don’t much care. I’m secure in what I said being okay, and as I’ve written a few times before in other situations, I really don’t think that any subject is taboo as a source of comedy, as long as said comedy is being approached smartly.
Still, though, I feel like I have to say something here, because this probably isn’t the last rape joke I’m going to make, and surely not the last time I’ll offend somebody with one.
Nearly every woman I have ever cared for in my life has been a victim of some sort of sexual violation. I may very possibly have suffered the same as a child (memories are hazy, and have not been pursued). So, yes, I am entirely aware of the destructive effects of sexual assault. I sometimes joke about rape for the same reason that black people can call each other niggers, and if you don’t like that, I’m sorry. Just don’t assume that I don’t know what I’m talking about, or that my life has never been touched by that singular tragedy, because it has.
So get off my fucking back, and at least apply some lube next time.
