Rape jokes are Patriarchal silencing techniques. People who laugh at rape jokes are those who haven't thought about the consequences of their laughter on rape victims and rape culture and those who don't think rape matters. Increasingly, I'm beginning to believe that its the second group who are the most numerous.
So, here's a bit old hint: if you laugh at jokes about rape, you are perpetuating rape culture. You tell rapists that its okay to rape; that rape is nothing but a silly little thing that women whinge about. Every time you laugh at a rape joke, you tell a rape victim their trauma doesn't count. With every snort, you tell women that they have no right to expect to bodily autonomy. With every snigger, you tell a woman its her fault she was raped. With every giggle, you tell women that their bodies are nothing more than disposable fucktoys for men.
Laughing at jokes about rape is women-hating behaviour. It reinforces and perpetuates rape culture which results in 1 in 4 women being raped. It reinforces sexual assault and sexual harassment. It creates a society where women don't matter. It tells women not to bother reporting their rapes because no one will care.
There is a petition here to have Comedy Central stop airing programs by Daniel Tosh. Let's start silencing the perpetrators of rape culture instead of the victims.
The text of the petition letter is as follows:
Greetings,
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Take Daniel Tosh off the air
Daniel Tosh, offensive jokester extraordinaire, crossed the line a few days ago in a comedy club. During a skit in which he made jokes about rape, a young woman stood up in protest of the offensive jokes. In response, Daniel Tosh "joked" about how "funny" it would be if she were to be raped by "like five guys" right then. His jokes continued and the laughter in the club grew so loud that the young woman had to flee in fear.
This takes offensive joking to the next level. Tosh did not simply make jokes about rape, which is bad enough as it is, but he used his jokes in a threatening way that a young woman ran away to maintain her safety. He used his jokes to silence a person who was concerned with the nature of them.
This is not a man that deserves to be revered and aired daily. He is tasteless, offensive in nature, and proud of it. There should be no pride in humiliating and scaring other people. His fauxpology on Twitter was hardly sincere and only serves to show us how much he cares about himself, but not for other people. Bad things do happen, and yes, you CAN make jokes about them, but that doesn't mean you should. And it certainly doesn't mean that you get to decide if anyone should be offended by them.
This petition is to get Daniel Tosh and his show, Tosh.0, taken off the air permanently. No new episodes, no reruns, no comedy specials. Period.
Our petition has already reached over 8,000 signatures. Is that something you can ignore?
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