It says so much about our culture that a t-shirt reading “I was raped” is a huge scandal that makes it into the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, CNN, etc., but I haven’t heard a peep about this one.
I guess ’cause it’s such a funny joke. Ha ha. Get it? Excuse me while I puke.
Update: Dear Lord, it’s worse than I thought. Browsing through the t-shirts available, I found such gems as “I put the sensual back in nonconsensual,” “No means Yes,” and a picture of the chemical makeup of rohypnol (“roofies”—a rape drug). I don’t even know what to say.
Great finds. No words for this. I hope this post gets picked up. Go grrrrl!!
[...] you saw someone wearing any of these disgusting shirts, would [...]
With all this t-shirt hoopla, I wanted to point out a very cool t-shirt offered by the Women’s Studies department at College of Charleston (headed by my college mentor, co-editor of Catching a Wave, an awesome book on Third Wave feminism.) It says “Full-Frontal Feminism.” Let’s continue to be bold in proclaiming our beliefs!
http://www.cofc.edu/wgs/t-shirt.html
PS I suspect the shirts were inspired by the name of Jessica’s (feministing.com) book!
Wow…the sensual back in non-consensual? There are lots of offensive thigns I find funny, but this is where I draw the line. Wearing a shirt like this is like bragging about it (and if you haven’t done these thigns, then you somehow aspire to do them…) and that makes me ill. But hey, at least if a saw some guy in a bar wearing one, I’d know to avoid him.
And furthermore, what the hell does “Calm down: dont make this RAPE case into a MURDER case” even mean? Don’t get so mad? None of these men have ever been raped. They have no idea… and the term “calm down” is so gendered, such a tool used exclusively against women. This is horrible.
[...] Cara I came across this horrifying t-shirt, which reads, for anyone who’s wary of clicking through, “serial rapist.” The [...]
According to self defense law here, I am allowed to meet deadly force with deadly force. The threat of rape is considered deadly force. Anyone wearing this is asking to be shot.
The “best part” is that you can buy in kids’ sizes. I personally am holding out for the onesie, and then the apocalypse.
Cafe Press is removing some of these designs, but there are thousands of them, and some may be too subtle for them to spot. Perhaps a blogswarm of emails could help them stay focused on the task?
See example here
Hmm…”Design” is no longer available. Makes me wish that Cafepress had to approve designs, but that would be pretty much impossible, right? Say as impossible as having to go through and take down all of these so-called “designs”? Something to think about, Cafepress!
Drew458 – love the blogswarm idea. Let’s do it.
If you were a rapist would you really wear one of these shirts? No.
“and if you haven’t done these thigns(sic), then you somehow aspire to do them…” What? That’s a far stretch. It’s only a controversial shock appeal meaning, no one’s actually advocating rape. They’re advocating making fun of rape. To use a “gendered term” (Which is strange, as a man I’ve been told to calm down? Maybe I’m just femmy) calm down. No reason for this knee jerk reaction when it’s just about attention and making fun of rape. I can’t imagine the chances of getting raped by someone in a shirt like this is higher than a guy without.
I do agree that the controversy surrounding the “I’ve been raped” shirts is also undeserved. Raising rape awareness is a thing of debate? Hardly. It’s not an innocent subject, but people need to be aware so they can protect themselves.
If I were to believe that every person, every person in 10,000, even, wearing a shirt or talking offhandedly about rape had intentions to be a rapist, then based off 4chan, youtube, and videogames alone, 25% of the male populous, (and 15% of the female) are rapists.
A t-shirt advertising rape does not make one a rapist (or rape okay), any more than a t-shirt advertising guns on it makes one a gun handler (or guns okay), or a t-shirt advertising rap-themed symbols (whatever they have, 6′s, $ signs, guns) would be a rapper (or rap okay).
It’s a t-shirt. Get over it. There’s a lot of them, there’s a lot like them, they’re enjoyed by everyone, male and female. This kind of anger would be better put against something REALLY sexist, like female rights in the middle east, or women divorcing men for a cut of the profits (because sexism goes both ways.)
Seriously. A shirt.
Get over it.
Leo and Tom -
Are you kidding me?! Leo, you flat-out admit that these shirts are “advocating making fun of rape,” and Tom, you think we should “get over it.” How do neither of you understand that rape is something that is never, ever funny, and that to make light of it is just as offensive and terrifying as “female rights in the middle east.” This is about an act of extreme violence that takes away a woman’s (or a man’s, in many cases) control over her own body, which is an essential human right. To shrug off a t-shirt that makes light of such horrific violence is to send the message that it’s not that bad.
As for your reference to “women divorcing men for a cut of the profits,” Tom, take a few things into consideration before you start comparing lightbulbs to oranges. For one thing, you’re comparing a financial phenomenon to an act of brutal violence. Secondly, I’d be duly surprised if you could prove to me that gold-digging wives are anywhere near as big a problem as rape or female rights in the middle east.
Tom, you’re drastically missing the point. This shirt IS “REALLY sexist”. The overwhelming majority of rapes are perpetrated by MEN against WOMEN. T-shirts like this or other “jokes” about rape trivialize an event that for many women, as many as one out of four, is a traumatic, emotionally excruciating, potentially forever-damaging event. For you to write that off as “just a t-shirt” is extremely insulting and cold-hearted. Rape is not funny. Ever. No, wearing this shirt does not make one a rapist, but it does bear a certain level of misogyny and idiocy, in my opinion. And they’re certainly NOT enjoyed by everyone.
[...] interesting theme, reminiscent of our recent adventures with CafePress… This woman was raped and footage of the rape was uploaded to YouTube. The video wasn’t [...]
I think I can safely say (I’m a lesbian and a feminist) that I’m not mysonginistic or pro-rape (WHO IS pro-rape?). And honestly, anyone who takes up a torch because of one of these shirts is AN IDIOT. They are not meant to offend anyone who has been through the horror of rape (nor to condone it).
THEY ARE MADE to offend the feminists who have nothing better to do than be offended by ANYTHING rather than devoting their efforts on REAL issues. I congratulate the creators for a job well done.
It’s called Black Humor people. Get a life.
If.men.were.raped.by.women,
they.are.hailed.as.studs.
Those.men.raped.by.men
suffer.in.silence.
Men.who.have.a.beloved.woman
who.was.raped….side..with
women.
Disgusting..Tshirts..are.never.worn
as..advertising…
rather..they.are.bragging.about.what
They.did…or..want.someone.to.believe
they.did…
Either..way..they..are..sick
Sarah: “They are not meant to offend anyone who has been through the horror of rape…”
I don’t really care what the shirt is or isn’t *meant* to do. What matters is what it *does.* I’m a rape survivor, and what you call black humor I call the trivialization of the most traumatic event in my life. You don’t get to decide how I feel.
Lets make a new shirt were there is a guy wearing this shirt and someone else is next to him stabbing him in the throat. I’d wear that
Leo and Tom,
Why don’t you guys get over yourselves? You get mad at people here for being upset about pro-rape shirts, yet you are sooooo fanatically upset that you actually took time to post a comment defending pro-rape t-shirts? You must be the type that like rape porn. Look, find other outlets for defending your sick fantasies. There are some things you never joke about, and rape is one of them.
There are things you can’t joke about…in America?
Shock humor has served its purpose I guess.
[...] to be funny,” Tshirts with the words ’serial rapist’ on them, such as the shirt (and those like them) posted over at SAFER were also just “meant as a joke” and are now [...]
Wow. These are 100% unfunny. And the kid sizes make me ill. Sarah, I am sad that you see this as Black Humor. I see trivializing rape as a REAL issue – one that’s worthy of being addressed.
Bit sad really. Why would anyone think it funny?
I am a male and I was drugged and raped by women. I have panic attacks, depression, I get extremely nauseous just being touched for more than a second or so, by men or women. I am trying to come to terms with what happened to me, but it is incredibly difficult. I keep thinking about what I could have done, should have done so it wouldn’t have happened. I know intellectually that I am a victim, that it wasn’t my fault and I didn’t deserve what happened….but that doesn’t touch the guilt and pain and humiliation I deal with every day. I don’t feel safe anymore, I don’t think I ever will again.
That being said, I find a number of things in this article very disturbing. But what disturbs me the most is the attitude to rape being shown by everyone. Rape IS NOT a women’s issue! Rape is a human issue. I won’t even call it a crime because it is so far beyond and so much worse than things like theft that we typically think of when we think of crimes. The video, I find disgusting and horrific. I think the posters should be sought out and at least fined if they were not the perpetrators and the ones who committed the attack should be imprisoned. Those who watched, barring those who may have been law enforcement, sicken me.
As for the T-shirt. The T-shirt has every right to exist and people have every right to wear it. I am active duty military and I have sworn an oath to protect the very freedoms that allow that. However I have every right to my own opinion of the people who would wear that shirt, and every right to express that opinion as loudly as I want. I also have every right to let a vendor know what I think of their company for carrying such a product. So I think an email campaign to the company is a great idea.
I want to re-emphasize one last thing:
Rape IS NOT a women’s issue, it is a human issue.
AloneAndApart
I am so sad to read the comment #5…I believe the writer is suggesting that men are never victims? I cry for the ‘silent victims’-males,who because of the stigma society has made out of this crime….rape is a crime-a horrid crime!
The writer of #5 says ” not to take a rape case and turn it into a murder case”….and that the phrase “calm down” is an exclusive phrase used “exclusivly against woman”.
I am a male
I am a rape survivor (barely)
I feel justice would have been done me better if the rapists had gone ahead and finished the job-they murdered me inside and stole more than one can imagine-they stole my future,they might as well finished killing me.
I was told by the authority I complained to to “get used to it”…that was 38 years ago-I have NEVER gotten used to it.
Enough of the feminist side of rape-There are several hundred (times 10)children I can list as rape victims-boy children,who have no understanding of ‘gender’ or ‘feminism’.
I can share tons of articles-all regarding male survivors,and victims.
The event of the crime is not in regards to sexuality-I have been led to believe sexuality is a comfortable thing.
Ever since my ‘sexuality’ was devistated 38 years ago-I have never known there is a pleasure from it. I did’nt have fun-there were no good laughs,no…to this day I relive the fear,every day-I relive the fear.
I feel there is no one gender nor group who is fully able to accept the monopoly of who is attacked more,that is truly unfair to the fact that in this country we have been taught the male is the macho and female is the feminine. The unfortunant attachment of the word ‘sexual’ involved with ‘assualt’ is so wrong because it defines a particular act as if it might be a pleasure for some one in the combination…assault is painful and meant to instill fear and power over another.
I am sorry the studies have failed to show men are not all leech’s combing the streets ready to attack…there are those of us who have been attacked and made to stay silent if only by the fear to come forward because of ingnorence and shame.
I offer some reading:
http://www.palmcenter.org
http://www.newsweek.com/id/78159
[...] there was “No Means No. Well Maybe If I’m Drunk.” Also the more straightforward “Serial Rapist.” Sifting through the Jezebel comments on the “date rape” t-shirt story I found one [...]
Oh how nice. In the name of not offending women, we’ve compromised on the issue of freedom of speech. Again. Any books that we should burn, while we’re at it? TV shows? Movies with rape scenes?
Penn and Teller got it right: This country needs INsensitivity training. ANYONE who proposes that other people should have to change what they say, what they write, how they act, and, apparently, what they wear, should be required to hire a rude, obnoxious stand-up comic to insult them mercilessly until they are DEsensitised enough to be fit to live in a free country.
–Ray
For some reason this post keeps getting recirculated and commented on, so I thought I’d make a bit of an intervention. I approved the above comment, of which we get equally thoughtless and sometimes much ruder variations from time to time, as an excellent example of the kind of “political incorrectness” that allows racism, sexism, homophobia, victim-blaming, and lots of other impulses drawn from the uglier parts of the human psyche to masquerade as liberation or ground-breaking political insight. I found, thanks to Racialicious (whose term hispter racism gets at a related, but different, phenomenon), this great analysis from Debra Dickseron, I believe from her book The End of Blackness.
“The rhetorical cul-de-sac where white hate went—in goes racism, out comes political incorrectness. Use of this phrase is a tactic designed to derail discourse by disguising racism as defiance of far-left, pseudo-Communist attempts at enforcing behavior and speech codes. However, vicious, brainless, knee-jerk, or crudely racist a sentiment may be, once it is repackaged as merely “un-PC†it become heroic, brave, free-thinking, and best of all, victimized.”
Her point speaks directly to those made by our commenter above. Our critiques are not over-the-top whining by overly sensitive bitches attacking the poor fragile rapists and rape apologists where they cower in their caves afraid to come out and attack another woman for fear that we will “compromise their free speech.” Just trying to phrase it that way reveals how ridiculous such claims are – try telling the one in seven U.S. women who will be raped in their lifetime that they’re being too sensitive.
Also, serious pet peeve, the freedom of speech guaranteed in the Constitution is a freedom from federal government restriction (and even that freedom has been repeatedly recognized by courts of varying political leanings not to include certain kinds of speech, most relevantly in this case threats of physical harm). So calling someone out for the racism/sexism of what they said/wear on their chest is not in ANY WAY a violation of their freedom of speech.
Nora, you rock.
People who are all about free speech seem to go all wobbly when other people speak up about how offensive the speech is.
Jerk: Rape is cool t-shirts rock.
Me: Yo, I think this t-shirt sucks.
Jerk: You are hurting my free speech rights by expressing your opinion.
Me: I am using my free speech rights to say you and your t-shirt suck.
Jerk: But I’m a guy and you’re not allowed to criticize me cause I’m on the side of free speech.
Me: I’m using my free speech right again to say you are an asshat and your t-shirt still sucks.
Jerk:
[...] I think they’re asking the wrong question. Rape is, unfortunately, used as a punchline ALL THE TIME. So that answers it: yes, it can be. But the better, more important question is, should it be? [...]
was browsing for research purposes and came across this one. Could not help wondering how well adjusted to the ugly we have become as a society. Who would want to take credit for designing such a t-shirt and who would wear such a t-shirt, let alone who would want to identify with someone wearing such a shirt…may god help us!