When Rape is “Funny”

Emily Hauser recently blogged on men,comedy and prison rape:

I watched the Betty White-hosted SNL a little earlier, and my goodness me, the woman is a national treasure. Really, and truly. I adore her, and not just because I attended St. Olaf for a year!

But one skit made it nearly impossible for me to keep watching, much less laughing — perhaps you’ve guessed which one! Yes, boys and girls, it was the “if-you-don’t-change-your-ways-you’ll-go-to-prison-and-get-raped” lark.

Ha! Rape is so fucking funny! No, not really. Not ever.

I've seen that sorry skit before on SNL as it seems to pop up several times a season over the last few years. I don't find it particularly amusing and the message it sends is so typical of entertainment these days.  Men, prison and rape.  Yeah, fucking hilarious.  Swap the genders and tell me how hilarious it is now.  Emily, who has worked with male survivors, wrote about this topic in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on March 4, 2008:

…most of us no longer tell rape jokes — unless they involve male prisoners, that one small part of society about whom we apparently believe such humor to still be knee-slapping. And by extension (subtle or not-so), the rather larger group of men in general.

In 2004, the U.S. Department of Justice reported some 8,210 allegations of sexual violence among the country’s 2.6 million inmates of America’s jails, prisons and juvenile facilities; of these, about 2,100 were substantiated (due to underreporting, this number is not reliable).

The simple truth is that rape shatters people, no matter where it happens. Rape takes your sense of security and sense of self, and shreds them. The problem of prison rape, Prof. Mary Sigler wrote in the Iowa Law Review in 2006, “is first and foremost a failure of our moral obligation to treat people humanely.”

As a male rape survivor I appreciate Emily's willingness to speak out both on her blog and in the Star-Tribune. I don’t find rape jokes of any kind to be humourous. I find them demeaning, minimizing and childish.  The general lack of respect that rape survivors receive is only magnified when the survivor is a man.  Throw in prison and the reactions shift from apathy toward all male survivors to immature attempts at humour or outright derisive comments when prison is involved.

Emily, writing in the Star-Tribune about callous attempts at rape humour, mentioned that she would “shudder to think what goes through the hearts of male rape victims at such moments." I can’t speak for all male rape survivors, but I can talk about how I feel at such times. I feel minimized, mocked, laughed at and generally devalued as a human being. I want to curl up in a ball and shut out the world for a while. It sickens me to my core.

So, thank you Emily for speaking up and getting it right.

Previously, I blogged about a similar theme, (Why Are Female Rapists A Joke To Hollywood): https://jameslandrith.com/content/view/3269/79/

Relevant Links:

http://emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com/2010/05/09/dear-betty-white-snl-comedians-everywhere-prison-rape-is-never-funny/