Just a joke?

Let me ask: what have you personally done to prevent rape recently? If you’re a man, the answer is hopefully “not raped anyone.” If you’re a woman, the answers will be many: avoiding dark places at night, avoiding walking alone, taking a taxi rather than public transport, not making eye contact with people in the street, keeping away from groups of men or calling a friend to make sure that they got home safely. This is only considering the relatively rare case of people being raped by strangers in the street, compared to the much more common crime of being raped by someone you know or someone you’ve just met in a social situation, which requires its own preventions: not getting too drunk, not taking drugs at a party, watching one’s drink, and avoiding going to social events without close friends. Men reading this might be shocked at such measures: surely all of that’s not necessary?

It is. Rape, sexual assault and harassment happen. In 2006, the UK saw 85,000 rapes – around 230 per day. Of these, less than 1% led to a conviction. Of children aged 13 to 18, 33% of girls and 16% of boys have suffered from some form of sexual abuse. In total, 15% of women are victims of rape at some point in their lifetime, and it is believed that 85% of rapes go unreported. Think about those numbers for a moment: someone you know, likely several people, has been raped or sexually assaulted. You may not know about it; they may not talk about it, but it happens.

Rape culture is not a culture of rapists or one that glorifies them, but a culture that downplays or even disregards the effects of rape.

This brings us to our infamous Hangman article for two reasons, the first of which is rape culture. Even disregarding the abysmal rate of conviction noted above, you may be thinking “rapists are hated by society, how can there be a ‘rape culture’?” Rape culture is not a culture of rapists or one that glorifies them, but a culture that downplays or even disregards the effects of rape. It’s the idea that women who dress provocatively are “asking for it;” the idea that a woman who’s sexually active or doesn’t fight back is “secretly enjoying it;” the idea that if someone does walk through a dark place at night, they “had it coming to them.” No one deserves to be raped. These ideas blame the victim for something that isn’t their fault, and in doing so, they take some of the blame away from the rapist. The tactics for preventing rape may well be good advice, but they do not constitute blaming someone who fails to follow them: if I leave my door unlocked, it is still the burglar’s fault if my TV gets nicked.

Similarly, no one believes that people will read Hangman and then date rape someone, or condone someone who does. Each joke like that, however, contributes to a culture in which rape isn’t something serious, but something to be laughed at: where victims of a horrid crime are ignored or dismissed, and where criminals are seen as, “oh, those silly rapists!” It leads to a culture in which rapists aren’t brought to trial or convicted; where victims are afraid to report that they’ve been raped and people raped by their partners can’t even turn to the police for help, because it’s believed that such a thing simply can’t happen. This is rape culture, and it is everywhere, even here at Imperial.

Secondly, given the statistics above, think how many people here are victims of rape or sexual abuse. Think of how many people there are reading this article now, and who read Hangman on the 10th of February. Rape is a traumatic experience, which can cause long-term distress and damage to sufferers. Descriptions of rape, especially those which present it in a trivial, humorous light, can trigger anxiety and panic attacks in victims. Do we really want a newspaper distributed to over 13,000 students doing that?

On some level, there’s a time and a place for every joke: you might see me, for example, playing a game which trivialises violence and makes fun of people blowing up. You would not see me, however, laughing at such a thing in the context of any real war or shooting. What’s the difference between this and rape jokes? In our society, with rape so prevalent, there is no such thing as a context that’s removed from rape. Until rape has stopped completely, it’s not “just a joke.”