Hypothetical Dystopia

bankuei:

icecreamritual:

REBLOG AND SUPPORT

It took me a second to see “Since 2012” b/c I was like, “I KNOW THERE’S MORE THAN THIS”.

What made me stop telling rape jokes? I wish it had been what my sister told me, I wish I’d stopped that day instead of spending around a year loftily telling women why words couldn’t hurt them, that they should lighten up and that they didn’t get it. At first I felt I had to keep telling the jokes - had to! - simply because someone didn’t want me to. Otherwise I wasn’t being true to my art. It would be self-censorship. Comedians had to be free to say anything. Most importantly, how could I stay friends with the godawful, cowardly dickheads who told these jokes on a nightly basis if I turned around and said I wouldn’t? Sooner or later, though, I just couldn’t. Perhaps it was the jaw locking, knuckle clenching effect these jokes were having on the friends I brought along to shows. I’d sit next to them in the audience, see their discomfort, their disgust and realise I was doing the exact same thing up there, whether I knew it or not. Perhaps it was realising just how rarely rape is reported, and how making fun of it makes that less likely still. A lot of comedians say you can make a joke out of anything - and I believe that’s true. But when you joke about your grandfather’s cancer or the riots, it’s a public airing of laundry. It brings some collective fear out into the sunlight to be mocked and defanged. Perhaps I stopped because, in all but a few cases, joking about rape doesn’t do that. Instead, when we joke about someone else’s secret fear, it drives it deeper into the dark cracks of our national consciousness, only to be spoken of in brutal jest. Whatever the reason, I stopped.

(Source: fuckyeahfeminists)

fuckyeahfeminists:

Late last week, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) vetoed nearly half a million dollars that was slated to go toward domestic violence and sexual assault prevention.

Hey, you know what’s a REAL distraction?

• spending hours in the hospital emergency room because your boyfriend beat you up
• wondering when your partner is coming out of jail from being arrested for hitting you the night before
• not being able to concentrate on school work because your classmate raped you
• getting kicked out of school because you were unable to deal with the trauma of being raped
• losing your job or housing because of domestic violence
• not being able to find counseling because you were depending on your abusive partner economically
• wondering EVERY DAY “how the hell am I going to get out of this situation?”
• phone calls from your student loan provider asking for payments you cant afford because you dropped out of school after being raped and can’t get a job due to a shitty economy
• being triggered
• worrying that you’ll never recover from the trauma you’ve endured.

She defended the veto by saying sexual assault victims are “only a small portion” of South Carolinians who need help

The top 1% of income earners seem to be important enough to coddle in terms of policy, but when it comes to RAPE VICTIMS it’s a distraction?

Here’s a big FUCK YOU to Nikki Haley. Abuse affects EVERYONE. WE ALL MATTER.

stfuhypocrisy:

[PLEASE REBLOG AND SHARE TO GET THE WORD OUT]

UPDATE: Queensland’snew Attorney-General has just said in media they won’t end the “gay panic” defence — instead saying any change is “unnecessary”.

Please sign and share the petition now to tell Campbell Newman that his defence of the “gay panic” loophole is unacceptable, and it needs to be closed immediately. 

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A loophole in Queensland law allows people accused of murder to defend themselves in court by claiming “gay panic” — that is, if someone who they think is gay “comes onto” them, the sheer panic they feel is partial justification for murder. 

This law belongs in the dark ages — but it was enshrined in Queensland law in 1997, when a man responded to “gentle touching” by ramming his victim’s head against a wall until he was unrecognisable, then stabbed him to death. 

The killer’s argument was this: “Yeah, I killed the guy, but what he did to me was much worse.”

Just over two years ago, a man was murdered in my church’s grounds, and his killers used this same “gay panic” defence. They were eventually acquitted of murder. I’m utterly appalled that a law that so revoltingly and openly discriminates against gay people is still tolerated in a modern society. Laws like the “gay panic” defence are a crucial part of legitimising and reinforcing a culture of hate which means that 73% of gay and lesbian Queenslanders are subjected to verbal abuse or physical violence for their sexuality. 

While almost all other state governments have abolished similar laws, and refuse to admit evidence of non-violent homosexual advances in murder trials, nothing has changed here. Queensland is now one of the last states upholding the idea that a person can be panicked enough by gay and lesbian people to justify murder. That’s why I am calling on the Queensland parliament and LNP leader Campbell Newman to eliminate this law as a partial defence for murder, and forbid non-violent homosexual advance being treated as evidence in any murder trial.

This situation cannot go on.

Please sign and help eliminate this antiquated, 17th century defence from our law books.