Sexual Assault: Jokes and Desensitisation
This is a post I originally wrote for We Can! Singapore last year, but I realise We Can! doesn't link to its own archives, so I reposted my articles here as I feel they are important :) Baseline is, there are plenty of other intellectual, non-demeaning, non-dehumanising topics to joke about, you don't have to base your humour upon sexual degradation or racism.
We are all well-educated, at least in Singapore, and surely we'd want our behaviour to reflect our intellectual enlightenment. We can all make society a nicer place to live in. :)
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Sexual assault is a serious matter. Rapists are most likely someone the victims know and trust. Contrary to popular belief, the rapist who leaps out of bushes to rape women passing by at 2 o’clock in the morning is the rarest kind of rapist. It appears the most common forms of rape are perpetuated by ex-lovers/boyfriends.
As such, when people make light of sexual assault among friends or on social media, it normalises the idea of sexual assault.
Someone who already has the intention to violate another person will only receive further validation from these jokes.
Victims of sexual assault rarely seek the help they need because of the stigma and victim blaming they have to endure if they choose to speak out about their experiences. Without a supportive environment, they would only suffer further, especially if people, even their loved ones and peers, treat their experiences as a source of entertainment.
I believe people generally refrain from joking about murder victims – it is time we extended that basic respect to victims of sexual assault. Ultimately, a joke is not merely a joke – it can reflect dangerous attitudes.
It is not about whether or not the person making the joke would act on it; it is about the kind of environment we’d like our future generations to grow up in. It is time we treated sexual assault as the grave and inhumane crime that it is.
We are all well-educated, at least in Singapore, and surely we'd want our behaviour to reflect our intellectual enlightenment. We can all make society a nicer place to live in. :)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sexual assault is a serious matter. Rapists are most likely someone the victims know and trust. Contrary to popular belief, the rapist who leaps out of bushes to rape women passing by at 2 o’clock in the morning is the rarest kind of rapist. It appears the most common forms of rape are perpetuated by ex-lovers/boyfriends.
As such, when people make light of sexual assault among friends or on social media, it normalises the idea of sexual assault.
Someone who already has the intention to violate another person will only receive further validation from these jokes.
Victims of sexual assault rarely seek the help they need because of the stigma and victim blaming they have to endure if they choose to speak out about their experiences. Without a supportive environment, they would only suffer further, especially if people, even their loved ones and peers, treat their experiences as a source of entertainment.
I believe people generally refrain from joking about murder victims – it is time we extended that basic respect to victims of sexual assault. Ultimately, a joke is not merely a joke – it can reflect dangerous attitudes.
It is not about whether or not the person making the joke would act on it; it is about the kind of environment we’d like our future generations to grow up in. It is time we treated sexual assault as the grave and inhumane crime that it is.
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