RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE
Aug. 13th, 2010 01:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janegodzillaGoddammit, Penny Arcade. This shit is really disappointing and hurtful.
What follows is my reaction to Penny Arcade's two most recent comics, and the associated news posts. I'm not linking to the comics themselves. Trigger warning for discussion of rape and sexual assault.
First things first: I've never been raped. I've never been sexually assaulted. I've never been molested. Not that it's anyone's business if I have or not, but there you go. Here's the thing, though -- I've known quite a few people who have had these terrible things done to them, and you know what? The fact that I know even one person, much less more than one, who has been raped or otherwise sexually assaulted means I know TOO GODDAMN MANY. I cringe whenever I hear someone say, "Oh man, we got raped at work today," when someone says, "Haha, we raped you!" to indicate that they've won. It bothers me, and it makes me angry, and I always want to say something but I rarely ever do because I know the response won't be, "Oh my god, I'm so sorry I upset you," but rather, "Why are you being so sensitive?" Or worse: "Why are you so upset? Were you raped or something?"
(Yes, someone did ask me this once. I think I had to leave the room because I was so angry about it I was shaking. The fact that someone felt they had the right to ask...I can't even comprehend that.)
Rape is not like a bad day. Rape is not like winning. What it's like is RAPE, and it's not fucking funny.
What kills me about the Penny Arcade thing is that they could've let it go. Or it could've been a teaching moment. Obviously, it surprised the hell out of them that so many people emailed them about the initial comic, and that so many people were honestly hurt and upset by it. But instead of wondering why so many people were upset (like, say, because they had been raped, or because they knew people who were, or because we live in a culture where fictional rape is a punchline but when actual people are raped, they are told it was their own damn fault because they were wearing a short skirt or they were in the wrong neighborhood or they were drunk or they were sending mixed signals or they were, I don't know, existing), they decided to side with the people who weren't upset or offended.
It should come as no surprise that the vast majority of the people were not upset or offended by the comic are dudes who, presumably, have never been raped or think they don't know anyone who has (even though statistics indicate that they probably do). I read through some of the comments by their defenders on Twitter and in various forums, but I had to stop pretty quickly. The things being said about the people who were rightfully upset...it's vile. They are mocking rape victims. Actual people, who have been actually raped. IN REAL LIFE. And they are doing this in defense of a webcomic.
I don't know whether to boggle at the vast display of privilege, or throw things at the wall until I feel better.
I know they've made other comics about rape. I know they make comics about all kinds of horrible things, like murder and torture and pedophilia and bestiality. As a longtime reader and fan, I can say with perfect honesty that I don't think these comics are funny. They tend to go the lazy Family Guy route by substituting "edginess" (read: "offensiveness") for humor, and because I am a longtime fan and reader, I KNOW they can do better. Their work is usually very funny. With their one-off stories, like Automata and Lookouts, the Cardboard Tube Samurai, they can even achieve a wonderful sweetness or poignancy. But if they want to make stupid comics about dickwolves raping slaves, then they should go right ahead, because it's their goddamn comic. It wouldn't be the first time that something deemed hi-LARIOUS by game culture at large leaves me feeling cold and put-out. We ladies may play games, but gaming culture still isn't FOR us, if you get my drift. And while PA has done a nice job of drawing attention to this problem in the past, they still fall on their privilege sword sometimes just like everybody else, and when they get it wrong, they get it so, SO wrong.
It bothers me that these two guys, who are essentially THE voice of gaming culture right now, are using a platform as large and meaningful as theirs to mock people who were genuinely upset by a comic they wrote. By saying that they don't understand how joking or talking about rape might trigger someone, they are dismissing the experiences of real victims and saying that they don't matter. I mean, they could've responded privately to the people they disagreed with and left it at that. Instead, the thought that some of their readers found rape jokes offensive and upsetting baffled them SO MUCH that they had to respond publicly with straw-man arguments and mockery, and it's NOT. FUCKING. COOL.
Fuck you, Gabe and Tycho. On behalf of all of my friends who were sexually assaulted, on behalf of everyone who knows just how difficult it is to navigate rape culture...fuck you.
What follows is my reaction to Penny Arcade's two most recent comics, and the associated news posts. I'm not linking to the comics themselves. Trigger warning for discussion of rape and sexual assault.
First things first: I've never been raped. I've never been sexually assaulted. I've never been molested. Not that it's anyone's business if I have or not, but there you go. Here's the thing, though -- I've known quite a few people who have had these terrible things done to them, and you know what? The fact that I know even one person, much less more than one, who has been raped or otherwise sexually assaulted means I know TOO GODDAMN MANY. I cringe whenever I hear someone say, "Oh man, we got raped at work today," when someone says, "Haha, we raped you!" to indicate that they've won. It bothers me, and it makes me angry, and I always want to say something but I rarely ever do because I know the response won't be, "Oh my god, I'm so sorry I upset you," but rather, "Why are you being so sensitive?" Or worse: "Why are you so upset? Were you raped or something?"
(Yes, someone did ask me this once. I think I had to leave the room because I was so angry about it I was shaking. The fact that someone felt they had the right to ask...I can't even comprehend that.)
Rape is not like a bad day. Rape is not like winning. What it's like is RAPE, and it's not fucking funny.
What kills me about the Penny Arcade thing is that they could've let it go. Or it could've been a teaching moment. Obviously, it surprised the hell out of them that so many people emailed them about the initial comic, and that so many people were honestly hurt and upset by it. But instead of wondering why so many people were upset (like, say, because they had been raped, or because they knew people who were, or because we live in a culture where fictional rape is a punchline but when actual people are raped, they are told it was their own damn fault because they were wearing a short skirt or they were in the wrong neighborhood or they were drunk or they were sending mixed signals or they were, I don't know, existing), they decided to side with the people who weren't upset or offended.
It should come as no surprise that the vast majority of the people were not upset or offended by the comic are dudes who, presumably, have never been raped or think they don't know anyone who has (even though statistics indicate that they probably do). I read through some of the comments by their defenders on Twitter and in various forums, but I had to stop pretty quickly. The things being said about the people who were rightfully upset...it's vile. They are mocking rape victims. Actual people, who have been actually raped. IN REAL LIFE. And they are doing this in defense of a webcomic.
I don't know whether to boggle at the vast display of privilege, or throw things at the wall until I feel better.
I know they've made other comics about rape. I know they make comics about all kinds of horrible things, like murder and torture and pedophilia and bestiality. As a longtime reader and fan, I can say with perfect honesty that I don't think these comics are funny. They tend to go the lazy Family Guy route by substituting "edginess" (read: "offensiveness") for humor, and because I am a longtime fan and reader, I KNOW they can do better. Their work is usually very funny. With their one-off stories, like Automata and Lookouts, the Cardboard Tube Samurai, they can even achieve a wonderful sweetness or poignancy. But if they want to make stupid comics about dickwolves raping slaves, then they should go right ahead, because it's their goddamn comic. It wouldn't be the first time that something deemed hi-LARIOUS by game culture at large leaves me feeling cold and put-out. We ladies may play games, but gaming culture still isn't FOR us, if you get my drift. And while PA has done a nice job of drawing attention to this problem in the past, they still fall on their privilege sword sometimes just like everybody else, and when they get it wrong, they get it so, SO wrong.
It bothers me that these two guys, who are essentially THE voice of gaming culture right now, are using a platform as large and meaningful as theirs to mock people who were genuinely upset by a comic they wrote. By saying that they don't understand how joking or talking about rape might trigger someone, they are dismissing the experiences of real victims and saying that they don't matter. I mean, they could've responded privately to the people they disagreed with and left it at that. Instead, the thought that some of their readers found rape jokes offensive and upsetting baffled them SO MUCH that they had to respond publicly with straw-man arguments and mockery, and it's NOT. FUCKING. COOL.
Fuck you, Gabe and Tycho. On behalf of all of my friends who were sexually assaulted, on behalf of everyone who knows just how difficult it is to navigate rape culture...fuck you.