Forget "legitimate" rape; how about "hilarious" rape?

Remember how just using the word "legitimate" in the context of rape made rape victims castigate (Akin wants to deny their experience) , liberals foam (while inwardly cheering), and Republicans disavow?  Wasn't that long ago, and it was the gaffe leftwing pundits had been pining for to cast the election firmly in terms of Culture War rather than economic leadership.  Surely you haven't forgotten "legitimate rape."

Well, I got one better.  Here's a much more riveting phrase.  "Hilarious rape." "Funny rape."  There's a lot of pop culture evidence that a certain class of rape isn't just legitimate -- it's funny.   It's not just men that joke about it.  Women joke about it.  Like genital size humor women embrace it as doubt-your-masculinity humor. Are you a real man?

It's funny because it happens to men.  The prison rape theme permeates the movie Office Space (the music, numerous jokes about  "federal pound-me-in-the-***" prison" and about prison rape as the expected punishment for embezzlement) that it becomes a sort of metaphor for the loss of dignity for the American worker.  Boondocks seems to delight in prison rape humor.  How 'bout going Greek in Get Him To The Geek.

Example of Inappropriate Leftwing Rape Humor

Actually, any sort of anal penetration of men is hilarious.  Whether it is by a gorilla (Trading Places and Ace Ventura II), a bull (Top Secret), or a gigantic gerbil (Nutty Professor II: The Klumps).  Now these bestial rapes happen to jerks.  The latter happens to a college dean who is really jerky.  Comeuppance is best served by some male domination, even if it is a male animal.

It even, strangely, applies to male children.  In the movie Scary Movie 3, which otherwise has a lot of funny if racy humor, it descends to an extremely creepy level when it insinuates that a young boy in the film is habitually raped by a babysitter priest.  Nice anti-Catholic humor.  Is it a good thing to be de-sensitized to child rape?  What about a joke where a young girl is raped by a Warren Jeffs-like polygamist?  Not hilarious?  Why not?  It's just good clean anti-religious-nut humor.  Maybe a little boy doesn't have a soul to destroy or a dignity to rob?  After all, little boys are made of snakes, snails, and puppy dog tails.  Just a thought.  Isn't forced sodomy really funny?

Face of Dean Richmond as a giant hamster mates with him

This is not to say that male-on-female humor has never been joked about in the movies.  I just think there is a lot less of it, it is more taboo, and there tends to be a lot more outrage about it.  (Hey, Al Franken did think it was funny.)

TvTropes explains it as something that is so awful and taboo that it can only be coped with using humor.  So, the reason we don't joke about male-on-female rape is because it's not taboo and we don't consider horrific?  Huh? I think there has to be a better explanation than that.  The double standard reminds me a little of this:

“Pol Pot killed one point seven million Cambodians, died under house arrest, well done there. Stalin killed many millions, died in his bed, aged seventy-two, well done indeed. And the reason we let them get away with it is they killed their own people. And we're sort of fine with that. Hitler killed people next door. Oh, stupid man. After a couple of years we won't stand for that, will we?”  ~ Eddie Izzard, "Dressed to Kill"

If males declare war on males, maybe it's something they should just resolve on their own.  Male-on-female: that's the strong oppressing the weak because they can.  Now, that is evil.  That makes it a sexist hate crime.  Male-on-male rape is not a hate crime.  It's just guys getting carried away.

Wait, here's a hilarious joke about a man getting his just deserts:

I've been sentenced for a D.U.I. offense. My 3rd one. When I first came to prison, I had no idea what to expect. Certainly none of this. I'm a tall white male, who unfortunately has a small amount of feminine characteristics. And very shy. These characteristics have got me raped so many times I have no more feelings physically. I have been raped by up to 5 black men and two white men at a time. I've had knifes [sic] at my head and throat. I had fought and been beat so hard that I didn't ever think I'd see straight again. One time when I refused to enter a cell, I was brutally attacked by staff and taken to segragation [sic] though I had only wanted to prevent the same and worse by not locking up with my cell mate. There is no supervision after lockdown. I was given a conduct report. I explained to the hearing officer what the issue was. He told me that off the record, He suggests I find a man I would/could willingly have sex with to prevent these things from happening. I've requested protective custody only to be denied. It is not available here. He also said there was no where to run to, and it would be best for me to accept things . . . . I probably have AIDS now. I have great difficulty raising food to my mouth from shaking after nightmares or thinking to hard on all this . . . . I've laid down without physical fight to be sodomized. To prevent so much damage in struggles, ripping and tearing. Though in not fighting, it caused my heart and spirit to be raped as well, something I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for.

That'll teach him to flout the rules of society!  A final thought about that last hilarious joke.  Does the "doctrine of incorporation" apply to the injunction against cruel and unusual punishment?  You realize that not complying with government allows the government to threaten you with this punishment.  Your punishment is to be locked up with these predators.  Their punishment is to be given free room and board and fresh victims so that they can freely do what they were arrested for doing on the outside.  Isn't that a hoot?  I know, I know.  I need to stop because you are out of breath from laughing.  You can only take so much.

After Akin made his politically ham-handed statement about aborting children conceived through rape, rape victims stated that the ostensible insinuation that they hadn't truly been raped made them relive the trauma and shame associated with their assault.  Do you wonder how male victims feel when they hear these anal rape jokes making light of these traumatic coercions?  Ah, but they are probably too ashamed to say anything.

http://www.mencanstoprape.org/Resources/resources-for-male-survivors.html