Rape Culture in 30 seconds on Twitter

I've already mentioned more than once that I'm new to Twitter. So this kind of behavior is probably very commonplace to other viewers. And I know I've read articles about it, but this is the first time I have personally stumbled upon blatant examples of rape culture in my short time on Twitter.

I decided to check out the "Trends" list tonight while I perusing Twitter and right up there was #perfectchatuplines, which I thought would be funny and relatively harmless and might give me some material to make members laugh when I'm online tonight, since we have pretty much exhausted "Are you wet and ready bb?"

So I clicked on the hashtag link and was brought to a fairly active list of mostly seriously corny pickup lines.

Then there were these.

I was going to blacken out the name and face of the last tweeter, but he put this out there, he can expect it will be re-tweeted or reposted. 

The short list that I copied here are as follows: 

"Hey now, lets not turn this rape into a murder"

"Just say yes now and I wont have to spike your drink"

"the word of the day is legs, Let's go back to my place and spread the word"

"Does this rag smell like chloroform to you?"

"You're kinda like my pinky toe..because I'm gonna bang you on every piece of furniture in this house"

"Is your Dad in jail? Because if I was your Dad, I would be in jail"

Rape, drugging, kidnapping, violent sex, incest. In six tweets. All to be "funny." 

This is a prime example of rape culture. Where society (if this is what passes for society) is so inured to the idea of women as sex objects constantly available to men that the idea of taking sex by force is simply fodder for humor. This is WRONG. 

No one. NO ONE. Should be treated this way or exposed to these demeaning and denigrating attitudes. This is the slow drip of disrespect that erodes the idea that women are people who have the right to say no. This is the tip of the iceberg that crashes into legal proceedings and makes women who are raped twice victimized. 

Perhaps you think I am overreacting, but considering there are studies out there that estimate that at least 1 in 20 men is a rapist or sexual aggressor, and 1 in 6 women have been sexually abused, if you are in group of mixed individuals, it is very likely you have at least one sexual assault victim and more than likely one rapist in your midst. If you laugh at a joke like this, you have told the rapist that he has done nothing wrong, and the victim that she deserved it. All with a laugh. Or a re-tweet. Or an "offcolour" joke. 

Rape culture humor isn't funny. It isn't expression of free speech. It is abuse.