Zombie Sheep and Beelzebub's Dinner: Why Frape Isn't Funny

It was all going so well. I was idly scanning my facebook feed this afternoon when my head exploded. What could cause such a reaction? Surely nothing as innocuous as a word?

WRONG.

There are quite a few words that make me shudder, scream and turn a teeny-weeny bit violent. Use the word 'banter' and I'll squirm. Use the word 'bants', as one EUSA hopeful did a couple of elections back and I will hunt you down and punch you in the face. You have been warned.

But nothing, I repeat NOTHING, gets me more riled than the word 'frape'.

I blogged about how Jane Austen is languishing in a special level of hell, but I swear whoever came up with the 'f' word is being repeatedly dipped in molten lava and toasted at Gas Mark 8 billion and 64 as the devil's own plaything. If not I'll personally drag them there.

Whoever thought that having your status hacked to say something silly was in any way comparable to the ordeal of rape victims, even in jest, deserves to have their intestines pumped full of angry killer bees and their toes nibbled off by zombie sheep before being finished off with a sprig of rosemary by Beelzebub. A number of good friends have used it before, not out of malice but as it has become an acceptable and even funny term. For those who take up the 'f' term, it may be unthinking ignorance, but please, for the love of all things holy, think about it. You wouldn't think it funny to post a racist term and I don't see any difference here. Not to mention my 1 strike and you're defriended policy.

But it doesn't end with 'frape'. Sexual assault is now the subject of some 'hilarious' comic routines (as discussed in the Guardian article "The Rise of the Rape Joke" accessible at http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/sep/10/rape-jokes-in-comedy).

Society must fight against the incipient attitude that rape isn't serious, that rape is funny and we should laugh at it.

It is estimated that between 1 in 3 and 1 in 4 women will experience rape in her lifetime, a figure which is considered conservative, with an estimated 75-85% of rapes never reported. In Pakistan, the Human Rights Commission estimates that a woman is raped every every 3 hours, every second victim is a minor and every fourth the victim of gang rape. Many victims have been ostracized, punished by the legal system, and even felt that the only response was suicide. In Congo, only now are we beginning to hear the outrage of the international community at the mass rape of over 300 women, some over 80, as well as babies. "Most of the survivors say they were gang-raped, by two to six assailants." (From a Guardian article, accessible at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/24/congo-rebels-rape-un-rwanda). Conviction rates worldwide are pathetic, and woman are repeatedly being failed by legal definitions, medical professionals and police. NUS statistics state that 1 in 7 female students has been sexually assaulted. Pretty much every woman has been made to feel uncomfortable and threatened by the sexual behaviour of (generally) a man. Who hasn't been groped in a club, or been frightened whilst walking on their own? As a woman big enough and ugly enough to defend myself, not to mention sober enough, I have been able to get out of these situations, but others aren't so lucky. How dare we make light of their plight?!

I urge you to boycott usage of the word 'frape'.

Wet shirts, Incest and Interminable Monologues: Why Jane Austen is Doomed to the 7th Pit of a Fiery Hell

A man in a sodden ruffled shirt doesn't do much for me. I don't think it ever did. However, for many, it has become the iconic scene of a BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. I believe that this is a bit of poetic license on the part of the producers, but I can't know because my mind has blocked all details of Pride and Prejudice from my mind in an attempt to sand-bag my brain from the rot of simpering, marriage obsessed heroines.

Three years ago, I ploughed my way through the inane ramblings of Ms Austen. After all, shouldn't every educated woman list an Austen novel as her favourite book? At first I thought my dislike of the book was a flaw of my own, I wasn't smart enough to appreciate the writing or not romantically-inclined enough to identify with the protagonists. I tried and I tried and I tried to get to grips with Austen. Perhaps it was just Pride and Prejudice that I didn't get on with. So I tried Emma. Just as bad. Sense and Sensibility? Senseless. Mansfield Park? Seriously, incest ain't sexy.

Ah, but it's just a quirk of the time, I hear you say.

Fair enough, but for books taken as the pinnacle of romance, that's a message that makes me vomit a wee bit in my mouth.

And then the writing style... Goodness me there have been telephone books which read better.

But all of this pales in comparison to the realisation I finally came to. There's nothing wrong with me because I don't like Austen, but the societal pressure for young women to like her novels. They aren't very well written and they do go on (and on and on and on and, well you get the picture). But that isn't reason enough to decry Austen - my bug bear is that Austen has become the pinnacle of 'female literature'and their underlying message a stick with which to beat women. Her books have soppy, simpering women devoting ALL of their time to finding a husband, and finding every other woman a husband too, and that is what educated women should aspire to. Women will idealize romance, whilst men can read whatever they want, the very basis of a huge amount of inequality worldwide.

Well screw you Austen, and societal pressure, because you will burn in my imaginary hell.

Repressed Ranting

***Warning - the following post deals with some pretty traumatic subject matter. Not all are recommended to read on.***

I like to see myself as a vaguely rational person who will accept different viewpoints and embraces academic debates. Without debate we will never learn anything, so I will listen to you, even if I then spend 20 minutes banging the desk and yelping 'ABSOLUTELY NOT' across the room.

That was before Palmer.

Over a fruitful cup of tea with Nikki today, we discussed my list of academics I have issues with. I didn't need to think very long to figure out who hits the number 1 spot : Craig Palmer.

Back in the days of yore, when younger, inexperienced me shivered in the cold December wind, working tirelessly on le dissertation by candlelight... Ok, back in December when I was researching chapter 1 of my dissertation - the legal status of women in Pakistan (specifically in terms of rape legislation) since Zia's Islamization programme was introduced - I was searching through books and journals to familiarize myself with the main debates in what I came to call 'rape theory'.

Susan Brownmillar's argument that rape is an exercise in power has been at the pinnacle of debates for over 30 years, revolutionising how we thought about rape as an act of not purely sexual significance.

Continuing the debate, Palmer contributed the most heinous aberration I have ever had the misfortune to come across. 'Twelve Reasons Why Rape is Not Sexually Motivated: A Skeptical Examination' set out to put the sex back in rape. (Accessible at http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.webfeat.lib.ed.ac.uk/stable/3812897) I am open to debates on the 'rape as power' issue, but I was not prepared for the onslaught that befell me. I will not give a full exposition of why I disliked the article, but I will highlight a few of the worst lines.

Top of the list has to be the brilliantly phrased "Only 15 to 20 per cent of rape victims required hospital treatment for physical injuries" and "only 22.7% ended up inflicting "very severe injury". That's right, only over one fifth of those psychologically traumatised, physically abused and socially stigmatised are left with very severe injury. Almost disappointing, right? If only there was a way to ensure that the attack stayed with them for life, affecting their relationships, causing lasting physical damage... Oh wait, that already does happen. Had this been a quote from a lecture I attended, I would not threaten to punch him in the face. No, I'd actually punch him in the face as hard as I could. But it's OK 'cos he isn't guaranteed to end up in the hospital so he won't be really hurt.

Other gems include: dismissing an argument because it "hinges on the assumption that a males' sexual desire is exhausted by a single "outlet"". But it's all OK because there are prostitutes and pornography for that sort of thing, which obviously isn't about the power inherent in objectification of women, oh no.

The military personnel who specifically planned attacks as a way of displaying power over the enemy weren't involved in power games. As Brownmiller argued:

Rape is considered by the people of a defeated nation to be part of the enemy’s conscious

effort to destroy them [...] men appropriate the rape of “their women” as part of their own male

anguish of defeat [...] rape by a conqueror is compelling evidence of the conquered’s status of

masculine impotence. Defense of women has long been a hallmark of masculine pride as possession

of women has been a hallmark of masculine success [...] The body of a raped woman becomes a

ceremonial battlefield, a parade ground for the victor’s trooping of the colors. (Brownmiller, 1986:38)

Rape as punishment can be sexual. Yay for rapists - exert power over women and get a kick out of it (!)

Sex doesn't need to include consideration for the other party's arousal. Good-o, because forcing a woman who clearly doesn't want it is all terribly sexual and not at all about power.

Date rape isn't really rape.

Men might experience sexual dysfunction because they are worried about punishment. What a shame. If only they weren't forcing themselves on someone else.

Rape is to be expected in the summer, y'know, with all those women out and about flaunting their bodies.

"only excessive force is a possible indication of violent motivation on the part of the rapist" - obviously rape isn't forceful at all. Oh wait, isn't that part of the blooming definition?!

Oh yeah, and only pretty people get raped. How comforting.

A well deserved number one spot on both my 'most hated academic' and 'most likely to get a punch in the face' lists - well done Craig Palmer.