Interesting topic. And it had me rethinking my complaint from another thread about the place of profanity in debate, which I typed just before opening this thread yesterday. Anyways, I wanted to address something said way back on the first page:
Quote:
Originally Posted by bcsoda
There is a huge difference between fantasy and reality...
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At this point, there really is no further argument. Is comedy any different AT ALL than fantasy? It's fiction. The reason we laugh at satire is because it survives on imagined, grossly exaggerated constructs of reality that simultaneously help to expose the many absurdities of reality. So, I would absolutely agree with you here. YES, there is a HUGE difference between fantasy and reality, and YES, because comedy is in every way a form of "fantasy", then taking offense at the subject matter is an over-reaction.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bcsoda
....I would be willing to bet that any woman with a rape fantasy does not actually want to get raped. Maybe she fantasizes about it, but the thing about a fantasy, even about rape, is that you are still technically in control of that situation. Your mind dictates if something is going to happen or if it's going too far. Even if you play out a rape fantasy with a partner there is still some element of control because if you say something is too much then your partner is going to (or at least they should) respect that. These women may be fantasizing about it, but I would be really surprised if they actually truly wanted to be raped by a stranger with no control over the situation.
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You lose me here. The insinuation is that in a context in which a rape joke is told, women who have experienced forms of sexual abuse have unwillingly surrendered some form of control. Can you explain how? I suppose that especially traumatised women are in danger of having their own memories of the event triggered by jokes about rape, but I also expect that there are a great number of other extremely mundane or benign triggers that are just as powerful. How do we control them all? Furthermore, what harm really befalls someone for having painful—even extremely and horrifically painful memories—recalled? The sentiment that we all need to be protected from offense is little different philosophically than thought crime. We can't and SHOULD NOT punish or reprimand people for what they are thinking, and we moreover should not punish people for triggering thoughts among their peers.
Finally, we may discover that joking and making light of tragedy is in many ways therapeutic. As a society, we need comedy, and we depend upon it precisely to alleviate the trauma of grappling with the many terrible things that are part of life. It's cathartic. Laughing in the face of tragedy is actually very empowering—it rather screams "control!"