Are rape jokes the last taboo, or a line that should never be breached?

Jokes about rape are almost always vile. The rarest of humorists can
ride the line of provocative and thought-provoking, but more often,
rape jokes are coming from said victim-shamers, or those who seem to
take the topic lightly, or confuse the issue as to what is actually
rape. (If that sounds odd, take note that it took the FBI nearly a
century to officially revise its own definition of rape as something
that most people would recognize as such.)

Sexual violence activists concur that normalizing conversation and
better education about rape prevention would actually increase the
frequency of reporting. But the question is, in the right hands, can
rape jokes actually help with this? Can they provoke and make people
think, in the same way that, say, Richard Pryor’s jokes about race in
America helped further the thinking on it?

The New York Times recently (sort of) asked this question, in a
profile of several female comedians who seem to be pushing the bounds
of good taste, and playing with the line between uncomfortably funny,
and just plain wrong. Primarily focusing on vulgar nerd Sarah
Silverman, the article traces several recent threads that seem to stem
out from the spunky comedian’s willfully declasse style:

http://www.alternet.org/story/153305/when_is_it_ok_to_tell_rape_jokes?page=entire

Moral panic? No. We are resisting the pornification of women

Don't mix up feminists fighting the the corporate media with rightwing attempts to police sex - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/01/feminists-pornification-of-women?commentpage=12#start-of-comments


Since when did women's lib mean dressing like a porn star?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2068915/Since-did-womens-lib-mean-dressing-like-porn-star.html

Cardiff council deputy leader Neil McEvoy suspended by Plaid Cymru over Twitter and Facebook comments

One of Plaid Cymru’s most prominent councillors has been suspended by the party after making controversial remarks about two women’s groups.

On Twitter, Cardiff council deputy leader Neil McEvoy accused Welsh Women’s Aid and Safer Wales of being responsible for "publicly funded child abuse".

Mr McEvoy said the remarks had been in the public domain for 18 months, and he was surprised they had been raised now.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/11/30/cardiff-council-deputy-leader-neil-mcevoy-suspended-by-plaid-cymru-over-twitter-and-facebook-comments-91466-29871246/


Coun McEvoy’s claims included accusing Safer Wales of supporting women who “break court orders” and “denying good fathers contact”.

The Fairwater councillor wrote: “I would argue that Safer Wales helps to abuse children.”

The remarks coincided with White Ribbon Day, which marks the campaign to end all violence against women. Welsh Women’s Aid CEO Paula Hardy said the claims were “outrageous and unsubstantiated”.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/welsh-politics/welsh-politics-news/2011/11/30/plaid-councillor-neil-mcevoy-slammed-over-twitter-rant-against-women-s-charities-91466-29866977/

Rape: Don’t Call Me a Liar

UK digital network BBC3 is lining up a season of programs on crime, including Rape: Don’t Call Me a Liar, a one-off doc looking at the issues surrounding rape and sexual violence in the UK.

The 60-minute program investigates why so few sexual assault cases come to court in Great Britain, and why conviction rates are so low. It is produced by BBC NI Current Affairs.

Source http://realscreen.com/2011/11/30/bbc3-turns-to-crime/

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Even with ‘Tapestries of Hope’ girl child violence continues

ZIMBABWE, Africa: Three-year-old Runyararo screams every time she sees a man. She was found abandoned at a bus station. When the Girl Child Network Worldwide (GCNW) took her for an examination there was evidence of sexual assault, and attempted penetration, a clear sign of rape though she has not yet been tested for HIV/AIDS.

In a country where the myth that ‘sex with a virgin’ can cure HIV/AIDS, there is a high probability she has already contracted the virus. Zimbabwe is in the top five AIDS countries in the world, with some estimating that 80% of adults live with AIDS.

http://womennewsnetwork.net/2011/11/28/zimbabwe-girl-child-violence-continues/

Only one in five men questioned over Oxfordshire rape allegations are charged

Of the 654 people taken into custody in the past five years, 118 faced court.

In 2011 to date, there have been 19 charges from 116 people questioned.

An Oxford group which campaigns against sexual violence said the “dismally low” charge figures are “extremely concerning”.

http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/9387877.Concern_at_rape_charge_numbers/

Sexual assaults in Cairo renew concerns for female journalists

Two female journalists sexually assaulted on Thursday during ongoing demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square sparked renewed concerns about women on Egypt's frontlines.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) even called to not send female reporters to Tahrir Square, although it later toned down its statement after angry backlash from reporters across the globe.

"It is more dangerous for a woman than a man to cover the demonstrations in Tahrir Square. That is the reality and the media must face it," said the new statement by RSF, issued today.

http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?storyid=1093459237

Rape Crisis Scotland accusing Boyle of promoting Britain's "rape culture".

Other sick attempts at humour include a reference to the Queen being gang raped by soldiers with a "smile on her face" and the description of Madeleine McCann as a "tormented ghost".

Two years ago, civil servant Darryn Walker was cleared of obscenity over a short story which graphically described the kidnap, torture, murder and mutilation of the pop group Girls Aloud.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/286279

'It's not rape if you shout surprise': Outrage as LSE student paper makes a joke out of sex attack

The ‘Agony Uncles’ at The Beaver, the student journal for the London School of Economics, write a regular satirical problem page.

In response to an imaginary reader’s fears about the fidelity of his girlfriend, they suggested he subdue her by subjecting her to a vicious sex attack.

Among the most vocal have been the university’s Woman’s Society and the Feminist Society, which has petitioned for the resignation of the paper’s executive editor, Nicola Alexander.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2063405/LSE-students-forced-hiding-penning-joke-rape-university-newspaper.html

This house would hold women partially accountable for rape

RINJ spokesperson and co-founder Micheal O'Brien said on Friday, "RINJ directors are furious. At first we wondered if this was some kind of "Shock and Awe" headline but realized after investigation that a "blame-the-victim" mindset prevails among male students at University of Calgary and the anti-rape group's campaign called "Don't Be That Guy" was being railroaded by misogynistic factions on campus.


http://www.wireservice.ca/index.php?module=News&func=display&sid=7025

Durex South Africa made a sexist blunder on its Twitter account on Thursday that had a number of women's groups and other commentators up in arms

The account @FeministsSA tweeted, "Wonder if @Durex_USA supports @DurexSA 's stance on violence against women - penises for keeping women quiet?? WTF" [sic].

http://lifestyle.iafrica.com/love_sex/765656.html

Libyan women demand support for war rape victims

About 100 Libyan women took to Tripoli's streets on Saturday in a silent march to demand more support from the country's new government for victims of rape during the eight-month war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi.

Their mouths covered with duct tape, women both young and old marched for an hour to Prime Minister Abdurrahim El-Keib's office and later met him to discuss their demands.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/11/26/uk-libya-rape-idUKTRE7AP0F420111126

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Recommend articles and blog posts about facebook's failure to treat rape "jokes" as an insult to every survivor of rape or sexual assault

Please list the articles that you think have most clearly shown how badly facebook has misunderstood the issue of violence against women.


Use the comments to post your recommendations.

List the pages that have disgusted you

Please use the comment section to list the facebook pages that have most upset you.

Please just list the page title ie dont give the facebook link.

Let facebook know you are boycotting their site

Dear Facebook.

I am one of (..............) people who are boycotting your site for the next week in protest at your support of rapeculture pages. These pages such as "You know shes playing hard to get when your chasing her down an alleyway [sic]", "Abducting raping and killing your mate's girlfriend for a joke" and "push kicking sluts infront of trains" are odious and completely unacceptable. They advocate, trivialize and propagate rape culture. Many studies show that normalizing rape and sexual abuse leads to higher and more frequent instances of these crimes.

Facebook: you have defended such pages claiming that implied - or even explicitly stated - abuse, violence or rape counts as freedom of speech, rather than hate speech, despite worldwide petitions and heavy criticism from charities, Facebook users and advertisers.

Facebook: your response: "Groups or pages that express an opinion on a state, institution, or set of beliefs - even if that opinion is outrageous or offensive to some - do not by themselves violate our policies." is irresponsible. Sexual violence is not a state, an institution or a set of beliefs; it is a abhorrent crime that occurs daily to millions of people.

Facebook: by defending violent humor, you are defending perpetrators of this crime. It is also untrue that these pages do not violate your policies and I want to draw your attention to the following from your terms and conditions- THE CONTRACT between yourself and your users:

You will not bully, intimidate, or harass any user.
You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.
You will not facilitate or encourage any violations of this Statement.

It is obvious that many of these pages break the above terms however you have refused to remove this content. WHY?

Facebook: we have reported the offending pages which break your Ts and Cs and you have ignored us. We have reported individuals and comments which celebrate violence and often directly threaten us and you have ignored us. However, your tolerance of rapeculture will not be ignored. From Monday November 28th, 2011, we will not be using our accounts for 1 week in public protest. We choose this date because this is when companies really start advertising for the Christmas/holiday season. You are hurting women, victims of violence, and society at large. We want to hurt your pockets and your reputation and will continue in our fight until you listen to us- your users- your customers.


Dublin address for Facebook Europe:
Hanover Reach
Grand Canal Harbour
Dublin 2
Eire

US address for Facebook head office:
1601
S California Avenue
Palo Alto
CA 94304

End Pro-Rape Facebook

Time	28 November at 00:00 - 5 December 2011 at 00:00
Location	Facebook
More info	Too many pages on Facebook advocate, support, trivialize or feed into rape culture. We know that normalizing rape and sexual abuse leads to higher and more frequent instances of these crimes. Facebook have defended pages such as "You know shes playing hard to get when your chasing her down an alleyway [sic]", claiming that implied - or even explicitly stated - abuse, violence or rape against women counts as freedom of speech, rather than hate speech, despite heavy criticism for charities, Facebook users and advertisers. Facebook's response: "Groups or pages that express an opinion on a state, institution, or set of beliefs - even if that opinion is outrageous or offensive to some - do not by themselves violate our policies." We want to send a loud and clear message to Facebook that their tolerance of rape/assault will not be ignored. On Monday November 28th, 2011, we are all deactivating our Facebook accounts for 1 week in public protest. We choose this date because this is when companies really start advertising for the Christmas/holiday season. We ask that along with deactivating your account for 1 week, you also boycott any and all companies and products that are advertised on Facebook until they stop tolerating the promotion of rape and sexual violence. Money talks and, by withdrawing funds, the companies will be putting added pressure on Facebook to stop tolerating the promotion of sexual violence. Help send a unified message to Facebook that sexual violence is not a state, an institution or a set of beliefs; it is a abhorrent crime that occurs daily to millions of people. Facebook, by defending violent humor, is defending abusers/rapists. Please pass this page on and invite everyone you know. Thank you. _______________________________________ The End Rapebook cause page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/End-Rapebook/151002384995815?sk=info _______________________________________ How to deactivate your account: http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=13015 _______________________________________ ***Important notice: There was word going around that those who deactivate their accounts might lose their admin/creator statuses on pages they own. To those who are the creators of pages, don't deactivate your account. Instead maybe post a status and don't log onto facebook for a week. To those who are admins but not creators, perhaps you could talk within your groups and leave one person who will not deactivate (but rather just stay off facebook for that one week) who will reset the admins upon their return. We don't want anyone to lose their page/group, but we do want people to participate in this event. We hope this is a fair compromise. ________________________________________ Petition Links: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/petition-facebook-to-remove-material-that-promotes-rape.html http://www.change.org/petitions/demand-facebook-remove-pages-that-promote-sexual-violence General Links: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/15130624 http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/sep/30/facebook-refuses-pull-rape-jokepages http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/04/facebook-hate-speech-women-rape Research Links: http://canterbury.academia.edu/ManuelaThomae/Papers/212203/The_effect_of_sexist_humor_and_type_of_rape_on_mens_self-reported_rape_proclivity_and_victim_blame http://www.humiliationstudies.org/documents/BilligHumourandHatred.pdf http://www.springerlink.com/content/g451601664828vh1/ http://psp.sagepub.com/content/34/2/159.short http://psr.sagepub.com/content/8/1/79.short http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1527-2001.1986.tb00522.x/full _________________________________________________