—Kathleen Quinlan, Take Daniel Tosh Off the Air (via limegl0wstix)

I think there’s something to be said here, that would benefit from everyone getting an understanding of what this Jezebel article calls ‘Hipster Racism’:

“But it’s a JOOOOOKE.”

Here’s the thing about jokes. They only work when they’re aiming up. I wrote this in another piece recently, but I’m just going to plagiarize myself: People in positions of power simply cannot make jokes at the expense of the powerless. That’s why, at a company party, you never have a roast where the CEO is roasting the janitor (“Isn’t it funny how Steve can barely feed his family? This guy knows what I’m talking about!” [points to other janitor]). Because that would be GROSS, and both janitors would have to work late to clean up everyone’s barf. Open-mic comedians, I know you think you’re part of some fresh vanguard in alternative comedy who just discovered that a lot of black ladies don’t like it when you touch their hair, but pleeeeeeease just stick to stuff about how your stupid girlfriend is a bitch. (Just kidding. Please never speak again.)

Now, the example joke here is not even in the same realm of wrong, but THIS PERTAINS DIRECTLY TO JOKES ABOUT RAPE.

Not just if they’re made in the presence of a woman (men, we know, are at risk too!), and no, there is no way jokes about rape can be non-threatening, in any context. It’s one thing to joke about things that make us feel uncomfortable in order to distance ourselves but holy fucking balls do we have to keep an eye on that shit because before you know it, it’s spinning out into lazy, pathetic, shithead comedians using it to “shut up a heckler.” Uh-uh. If you’ve got no other way to shut a heckler down than perpetuating a rape culture by suggesting that the men around her rape her, you’ve got bigger problems than looking like a complete asshole.

Do I need to spell it out? This is hurting everyone. Dan, buddy, you just made out the men sitting around her as potential rapists — something that all of us women already think about. A lot. And I’m not trying to suggest that women are the only potential people to be hurt by rapists who can only be men. But this is the main thread of this whole rape culture thing we keep raging about. Those men around the woman in the audience were being just as insulted and degraded as she was! So, shit, if you want to whine about us being ‘bitches’ and ‘ignorant sluts’ then consider that maybe this affects you too.

I would suggest that the next time you’re in the presence of a rape joke, whatever gender you identify with, you ask the other person if they are hoping that you regard them as a rapist. If they’re hoping you regard everyone around you as a rapist and what they’re actually trying to accomplish by making that easy, boring, joke.

And then just, I don’t know. Stop talking to the asshole after that. Ugh.