Gamers, Stop Throwing Around the Word “Rape”
It makes you look disgusting and ignorant. Whenever I hear someone use the term as casual slang, like “Sony is really raping their Japanese customers” it informs me that the person speaking is irrelevant and I no longer care what they have to say.
I’m a 28 year old male who has been gaming my entire life. I’ve done and said stupid things before, but I have NEVER been okay with that word being used in that way, especially today when American politicians are tripping over themselves trying to further trivialize it as much as they can.
I am at work listening to a gaming podcast that was recommended to me (8-4 Play, a podcast about Japanese games) and the host threw the term around three or four times in the span of five minutes. Ugh. I can’t stand it. This is a “professional” podcast, why can’t you conduct yourself in a professional way?
It drives me nuts that so many gamers work so hard to prove the negative stereotypes about our subculture wrong and then people so carelessly toss our hard work aside. You’re not only representing yourself on this podcast; you have lots of seasoned industry vets with you. You’re also representing them and you’re making the entire group look bad, and your thoughtless choice of words has ensured that I will never listen to you again.
Rape is a serious, traumatizing act that scars someone for life. Sony charging higher prices for video games in Japan is NOT the same thing. For fuck’s sake, THINK for TWO SECONDS before you say something.
2 Comments
I’m not the kind of person who throws that word around casually, or at all in such a way for that matter, but still…
What is the line? Who can say what and when and why? For example you said fuck in this post, which some people could find incredibly offensive and some may say 100 times a day. Is it worse to say ‘I’m gonna kill/murder you!’ when referring to your intent to win a competition, murder being a more serious crime then rape? I am of the persuasion that using the term rape, or anything like it in such a fashion, doesn’t detract from the seriousness of it nor is it going to lessen it’s meaning when used in it’s more literal and serious way. There is a point where, at least I beleive, you just have to accept things and not take them in a serious manner when it is not intended as such and simply let it be rather then rage over a few letters and when it’s appropriate to write or say them.
If everything was taken so seriously we’d live in horrific nightmare world void of fun and humor. Video games wouldn’t even exist for people to make such references, because they depict people or animals or L blocks getting hurt. The same goes for television, movies, and literature. As an example, the episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force called Hand Banana used the term rape probably upwards of 30 times in it’s 12 minute runtime, and I think that is one of the funnier episodes. Take a look at the South Park episode Jared Has Aides as well… similar concept, different subject. If we lived in ‘everything is super serious all the damn time world’ neither of those classic bits of comedy would exist and we’d all just sit around in hard, uncomfortable chairs frowning at each other set on the idea that the other person is doing something offensive.
I don’t want you to think that I am just insulting you or that I think rape isn’t a serious matter. I just think that you should lighten up. This is something that you cannot change and is never going to change unless it falls out of style. The only way it is offensive is if you let it be offensive to you by assuming that such people truly think less of it as a crime, which they most surely do not.
I’m not here to try and bash you or anything. I like your blog, and I like a lot of the things you write about. However, I have to defend these people in saying that they are not using it in a sexual way. They are using this form of the definition:
“an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation; violation: the rape of the countryside.”
That’s the wonderful thing about the english language. Many words have different definitions. That’s also the worst thing about it. haha.