Tuesday, April 8, 2008

More on "I was raped"

Adding a bit to Amelia's post concerning the "I was raped" t-shirt, I'm struck by the fact that an "I was raped" t-shirt will lead to national media coverage, but a "No Means No (Well... maybe if I'm drunk)" shirt won't.

In fact, getting upset about the shirt and writing to express your anger will make you a bitch.

I guess I'm just going to have to get used to the fact that only bitches get angry*. I'll be a bitch, then.




*I recently switched concentrations from Women's, Gender and Sexuality studies to a visual arts concentration and my friend said, "I never thought you were angry enough for feminist studies." Guess that doesn't mean I'm a bitch, though. I think I'd rather be a bitch than not.

3 comments:

Amelia said...

I blogged about the David and Goliath shirt as my first real post when I started this blog.

http://impersonated.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-february-28-2008-there-was-post-on.html

I didn't have very many readers back then, but the ones who did were basically like, "Who cares!? Free speech!"

Annoying. It is very odd how a t-shirt, whose designer is trying to give a better sense to rape survivors of not being alone, will get covered like crazy, but one where a company makes a joke of rape and then of the people who called them out for that bad behavior, gets little coverage.

I do not understand how these things work yet.

Unknown said...

The way companies like these t-shirt producers work is to market the most offensive thing they can, purely for the sake of being offensive, and call it humor. Fortunately, though, you'll be much more able to spot a classless buffoon from a distance. :D

Sadly, that's the way the entirety of our popular culture works these days. Shock value is more important than artistic technique, political commentary, literary merit, and essentially anything else that could be called artistic. This isn't to say that shocking things have no value, but when you shock purely for the sake of being shocking and 'edgy', you really only reveal yourself as having no taste whatsoever.

Disclaimer: I love South Park.

habladora said...

Hey, according to Tina Fey, "Bitch is the new black!" It is hugely annoying, though, that a woman isn't allowed to notice inequality or voice a critique without being labeled a bitch. Humm... that smacks of, wait - I think there is a word for it... oh, yes - sexism!