So I’ve been following the arguments brought up lately by the Lindy West article. If you haven’t read it, it’s here: http://jezebel.com/5925186/how-to-make-a-rape-joke
She has a couple of others that’s she written that makes some very good arguments, but I couldn’t find the links to them, including the response to the original comic she heard at the comedy club. She talks about how making jokes about rape can add to a hostile environment for women. By making light of a very harmful situation, we’re saying that the actual act itself is something that can be taken lightly. This is a valid argument. Now, Jim Norton, when he debated Lindy on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, the argument that he was trying to make, that everyone seemed to miss, was if we start by saying rape is off limits, then where do we draw the line. Unfortunately all the people that immediately began attacking Lindy overshadowed this point completely, and just added to the stereotype that we men are, in fact, dicks. And we are. I make off color jokes all the time, especially to my pregnant wife. There was a joke in there somewhere about kicking her down a flight of stairs to save money on an abortion. I’ve made a lot of jokes that would offend some (ok, most) people. But considering how I grew up, I don’t take offense to anything, and I don’t think other people should.
Rape is bad, obviously. Lindy points out that it’s an especially traumatizing subject for women. Absolutely! I don’t know anything about rape, personally. I don’t know the effects of it, or the violence that surrounds it, so I don’t how it would feel to hear someone joke about it. What I do know, is racial discrimination. I grew up in a small town in West Texas, around a bunch of red-neck idiots. This was in the 80’s and 90’s, and I was still putting up with idiots who hated “Mexicans”. Forget the fact that I’m a 9th generation Texan, I’m dark and my last name is Estrada, so I’m a dirty wetback. I would literally get into fist fights over this (one in Iraan, Texas in particular). I remember not being allowed to ask certain girls out in high school, or to the prom, because their dad wouldn’t allow them to date a “Mexican”, although I’ve never been to Mexico (Ok, once, but that was to get really drunk). This could be seen as a hurtful, or hostile subject to me and a lot of other minorities. But I don’t think it’s something that should be covered up in a comedy club. If it’s a well written joke, make fun of Latinos, I’ll laugh right along with you. I don’t think anything should be taken off the table, because pretty sure everything will be. Michael Richards made a bad joke about black people, can we not talk about them anymore. Did Tracy Bell ruin all homosexual jokes? Just because someone is really bad at making rape jokes, does that mean no one can, even if it’s funny? If we start with rape, where exactly do we draw the line?
Comedy is supposed to be controversial. How did we first learn about Lenny Bruce? George Carlin? Bill Hicks? Chris Rock? These were people that became famous by putting subjects on the table, not by taking them off.
