Dear gen Z, you don’t get any funnier when you say rape jokes. Instead, it has a negative impact on the victim. In Indonesia itself, rape jokes are still often found in social media content, especially comedy content. One example is the case of rape jokes that went viral in 2021.
TikToker @hagamars2 was attacked by netizens for its lewd content because it parodied female labor assisted by a doctor. The content reflects how rape culture is still normalized through rape jokes. The TikToker apologized and removed the content.
Read more: When a Men Becomes a Victim of Sexual Assault (Baby Reindeer)
You don’t get any funnier, these jokes are not funny at all
Jyni Verma, author of feministindia.com in her article Rape Jokes in Popular Culture, provides an explanation of this. She said that rape jokes are actions (which are considered jokes) that are demeaning, harassing, and should not be considered funny.
After all, what could be considered funny about the serious and traumatic experiences of rape victims? These victimization jokes contribute to the perpetuation of rape culture where the public normalizes sexual violence in everyday life.
In the rape culture pyramid popularized by Jaime Chandra & Cervix, rape jokes are at the bottom of the pyramid and parallel to catcalls and sexism.
In addition to perpetuating violence, rape jokes also have the potential to downplay the severity of rape through the habituation of criminal behavior in jokes.
As Christopher Anderson argues in Rape Jokes: Comedians, Please Stop Using My Trauma for Your Material, these unfunny jokes are extremely harmful to victims’ trauma.
Rape jokes can trigger the victim’s trauma, which may still be there. As a consequence of rape jokes, victims can also experience revictimization and find it difficult to move on with their lives.
If left unchecked, people will continue to perpetuate the idea that victims are to blame for their abuse (victim blaming). This makes it harder for survivors’ experiences of violence to be believed and taken seriously.
Especially if the victim is a man who is in a lower power relationship than the perpetrator. With the existence of rape jokes, the idea that victims can enjoy themselves will be taken for granted and internalized in society.
Read more: What Men Misunderstand About Interacting With Women (Patterns)
Stop normalizing rape jokes, please empathy!
Recognizing that rape jokes can contribute to the normalization of rape is the first thing to do. As Katie Mccrudden says in The Dangerous Effects of Rape Humor, promoting empathy can be one way to prevent rape jokes.
This can start by instilling an understanding in society that rape jokes are dangerous and harmful. Choosing to side with victims can also be the right action to prevent the normalization of sexual violence.
By choosing to side with victims, we can continue to voice and encourage many people not to behave or joke with shades of victim blaming as is done in rape jokes.
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