For example this comment (found in this comment thread):
Pfft, after the catastrophe that was the Nintendo Wii Europe Event followedThere's a sickening amount of privilege being exercised when someone can throw out a comment like this.
of course by the news that the Wii is not region free, I wen't in a matter of
days from being an avid Wii fanboy to completely and utterly disinterested.I
also know that I am not alone in this. Many, especially Europeans, are just sick
of the rape. I mean, at £133 for GameCube technology + some sensors, even Japan is getting extorted.
Too many times I come across it. And it's random. It's comments like that, the comments that completely trivialize rape, that make me want to leave my fandom behind, never click on my internet browser icon, throw the computer out the window.
It's rape. It's a hate crime. It's serious. Don't use it while in a fit of melodrama.
8 comments:
Fucking ignorant privileged fanboys.
Well I'm glad that blogs like your exists, so I know there is some intelligent life out there!
True x 2. When I used to play Starcraft online, i'd hear this all the time. A lot of men throw around the term like it's nothing and just equate rape as owning or pwning as they say and hence see it on the same level as winning or avoiding defeat which right there says some disturbing things about how people, men and boys use language to perpetuate the culture and in essence justify rape.
Mary-I'm glad to know that I'm not yelling out into some silent void. :)
luke-It always just shocks me when I see it, especially when it comes out of nowhere.
It's part of the extreme hyperbolic language used in MMOGs but it makes me uncomfortable too. I was playing the other day and a friend started talking about being ass raped to describe how his group had been defeated by some monster.
I didn't say anything because I know he didn't mean to offend. But it is offensive and if he knew that I'm sure he would think before he did it again.
It's hard to argue against that sort of language when you're there conversing with people. Like other similar offensive terms, people will tell you that you are being too serious or to relax.
Like the other day, I was around someone who uses the word "gay" to mean "bad" -- like so many people do. I don't know this person well; I feel that I couldn't argue because it would "blow things out of proportion" or mark me as hypersensitive and easily offended. I was at a birthday gathering, only knew one person there very well, and it was the first time that everyone except for two people had met me. Most of them will probably never be good friends, so I felt conscious about first impressions.
I wanted to say something, but I couldn't.
Fanboys aren't geniuses. In fact they are pansies who hide behind their computer and bitch about stupid shit that they are too afraid to do anything about. Don't give a fuck about them.
Rape has more than the sexual connotation. Ever hear of "rape and pillage"? Rape also means to plunder (land, etc), to seize/carry off by force. Granted, occasionally the term is used improperly and/or inappropriately (if it were description of said rape, or used in an explicitly sexual manner, like 'ass raped', I'd completely agree with you). To say one raped that game is to mean one has dominated the game, and completely owned it to the point that there is nothing left to the game. To refer to an industry taking harsh advantage of a group, area, etc. as 'rape' can be entirely appropriate. It may be an exaggeration or slightly inappropriate use in the particular case you quoted, but isn't necessarily horrible/bad/evil/wrong thing thing to say. It's not a favorable description, nor entirely PC here (due to people like yourselves, and the sensitivity of the sexual connotation of the term), but it is a valid term. Consider that its also applied to invading countries that destroy the environment/existing economy, etc.
I would agree with you if the term "rape and pillage" were used commonly today, but it's not. Also, from my understanding, the pillaging part was the taking away of valuables, (to pillage is to plunder) and the rape part is raping, meaning people who were being conquered were raped. And it is certainly still happening today.
Rape is rape and it's serious. There is no equivalent. To say that having high prices is equivalent is laughable. There's no space or excuse for rape to be taken lightly.
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