"'I Was Raped' Should Horrify -- But Our Culture Has Stripped the Word of Its Power" (Mikki Halpin)

[greeneyedboy]

Increasingly, rape is used to describe experiences such as a sports loss, a poor score on a video game, or being on the losing end of a business deal. . .

"Rape is something specific," says Michelle J. Anderson, dean of the CUNY School of Law and a former member of the board of directors and policy chairwoman for the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence. "It is a deeply personal experience of humiliation and degradation. Using the term 'rape' for these experiences not only wildly misdescribes them but also removes personal violence from our understanding of rape." . . . "The more we dilute this word, the more we play down the power of sexual violence," says Angela Rose, founder and executive director of Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment, a group devoted to education and action surrounding rape. "It actually adds to the silence surrounding this issue because it diverts attention." Rose worries about what she calls "the bystander effect" -- as rape is used casually, and actual rapes begin to seem less serious, the less the citizenry will realize they have a stake in ending sexual assault. Women are already told to yell "fire" instead of "rape" when they are being attacked because of a lack of community interest in violence against women -- this can only add to the problem. . . .

The common response to objections regarding this new use of the word rape is to claim, "It was just a joke." The specters of humorless "feminazis" and the PC police are raised. The damn joke about feminists and the lightbulb hovers unsaid. One is expected to back off, earnest and uncool. But sexist language is not benign. A recent study at Western Carolina University found that such phrasings allow men to become comfortable with prejudice and express it without fear of negative consequences. (The research project only studied male responses to sexist language.)

Thomas E. Ford, the professor of psychology at WCU who led the study, said, "The acceptance of sexist humor leads men to believe that sexist behavior falls within the bounds of social acceptability." A joke is not just a joke. . . .

http://tinyurl.com/languageofrape">tinyurl.com/languageofrape

[ingac70]

1. Good grief...

I reckon people saying they got "killed" to "describe experiences such as a sports loss, a poor score on a video game, or being on the losing end of a business deal" makes some believe murder is within the bounds of social acceptability.

:freak:

[greeneyedboy]

3. one important difference: if you hear that, you haven't been killed. n/t

[greeneyedboy]

2. casual comparisons to horrible things: to be avoided

Just as you don't compare to the Holocaust, don't casually compare your exam score, audition, sports team's fate, etc. to traumatic violence.

[kiva]

4. Some words should have power.

Unfortunately we tend to react to some of the most fearful ones by overusing them until they can be said without flinching, and that's wrong. Another example is 'Nazi'--we now use it as a noun to mean little more than someone who is forceful in their enthusiasm, and it no longer brings forth the horrible image of the Holocaust and WWII. Perhaps it makes us more comfortable, but at a cost.

[raccoon]

5. K&R. nt

[Rebubula]

6. I regret...

...that I have used that term to describe a intense beating in a sports event. However, in my weak defense, I felt dirty and wrong after saying it.

[Blue_Tires]

7. kick