This is a wee late, but I thought it was necessary to cover.
Much hoopla has been brought about at the University of Western Ontario since the student newspaper released a spoof April Fools’ Day issue that included a female student being raped by the chief of police. You know, because rape is so funny and all.
“The article spoofed Take Back the Night, a campaign to raise awareness of violence against women. It described a fake event called ‘Take Back the Nighties,’ during which feminists march through the streets of London, Ont. wearing their nighties while on-looking men masturbate.�
Later, a character with a similar name of a member of the Women’s Issues Network (WIN) and the Miss G Project, a women’s group on campus, is not only raped by the London Chief of Police, but whose vagina ends up taking on a life of its own and says “I love it when a man in uniform takes control.�
Not surprisingly, WIN has called for the resignation of editor-in-chief Ian Van Den Hurk, who says that the newspaper’s goal was to create satire:
“We crammed in every possible feminist stereotype and we thought that it was so ridiculous that no one could think we were being serious.�
Ha! And what kind of satire is this? Doesn't sound like satire to me. And what stereotypes are you talking about? That all feminists wear nighties? It seems obvious to me that Van Den Hurk and whomever wrote the article used the excuse of the spoof issue to publicize their own heinous misogyny. Yes, there can sometimes be a thin line between what’s funny and what’s offensive to people, but it sounds like this article was a very obvious and serious offense to WIN and to all women, particularly women who have been raped.
Apparently the university has allowed Van Den Hurk to keep his position as editor-in-chief, but is working with him to “implement several changes for the next publishing year,� including a new study group that will take students’ concerns and suggestions when publishing each issue.
Spoof issue or no, to allow a story to be published that makes humor out of the portrayal of women not only as merely bodies in lingerie to jerk off to but, more importantly, dehumanized as body parts to be raped (and enjoy it in the process) is horrific and merits an immediate sacking. I’m pretty appalled this guy was let off with what only seems as a slight misdemeanor.
Check out Zuzu's coverage of the story from a wee back.
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The problem is that morons like this actually think that "A modest proposal" is satire because "Oh, hey, it makes fun of those dirty, lazy, impoverished Irish!"
In order for something to be satire, you have to be engaging in some kind of criticism of something. It's not enough to be a sarcastic asshole. It's not really satire when you write about raping women and your point really is "Hey, women sure suck, eh? Man, it'd be great to just rape them until they shut up, am I right? Eh? Eh?"
I don't think much of MacLean's magazine but here's some more background on the
story
The student press vacillates between good coverage of campus life or crap like this depending on how stupid and immature the editorial staff is.
I'm so tired of the "it's so funny, can't you take a joke" defense for this sort of thing. There's no such thing as "rape humour".
Yup, heard about it on the "feminist" LJ community and blogged about it too. Unfortunately my own student newspaper had a rather lacklustre response to the incident (though I'm hardly surprised, given how their response to almost everything is a halfhearted "meh"). I did read that the UWO president threatened to withhold the Gazette's funding if they didn't clean up their act, though.
You'd think that they'd use a better excuse than "Wahey, we're just kidding! Y'all can't take a joke?!"
Mind you, how long has there been a trend of "rape is funny, ha ha" going on?
"Every possible feminist stereotype"??? I agree Vanessa, this makes NO sense. I didn't even see ONE feminist stereotype in that sick story... not that that would excuse it, but perhaps would have made it "satirical", as they claim it is...
Western is an old boys club, and the Gazette is the only daily student paper in Canada. It's also 100 years old. They weren't shutting it down no matter what, but apparently its articles are going to be supervised more closely now. It was the best that could be expected from this place.
What if he started it, "Dear Penthouse Forum: You'll NEVER GUESS what happened to me..."?
Ew.
I read the story from the link at Zuzu's and I can't even be mad. I'm just... CONFUSED.
Um, whoever wrote this was a really bad writer. Obviously, yes, it's offensive and it normalizes violence against women, and the paper ought to be ashamed of itself.
But even its own weak excuses crumble on an objective reading of the "article." I mean... it doesn't make sense. He's not throwing in a ton of feminist stereotypes; he's getting mixed up and throwing in a random assortment of stereotypes, rhetoric, and just plain offensive words, in the apparent hope that this amalgamation of offensiveness will somehow turn itself into "funny" without any real effort on the part of the writer. The result is schizophrenic and decidedly unfunny. I mean, in what stereotype to hairy underarms AND stillettos go together? This writer is confused and apparently under the impression that shock value alone equals good writing.
As an amateur writer who keeps an average blog, I'M offended. I can only imagine how an actual writer would feel looking at this piece of shite.
I just can't believe that they genuinely think this is satire, but I guess they must or they surely wouldn't have done it.
I tell you what though, if they'd done it in New Zealand in the last two years they probably would have been lynched. See here for the tip of the iceberg in terms of coverage of the police rape trials here:
http://capitalismbad.blogspot.com/2007/03/other-places.html
You gotta love when sad-sacks with no writing skills try to write satire.
Here is a link to a very thorough blogging of the Town Hall meeting about the issue:
http://soapboxspinster.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html
I recommend it, it talks about the university admins and everything.
The paper at my school, University of California San Diego, also printed an April Fool's issue and named it The Disreguardian [originally The Guardian] and also had an article joking about rape, while I don't recall exactly what the article entailed a lot of people reacted negatively in the next issue on the letters to the editor and The Guardian promptly apologized.
But what's with all this, "hey rape is funny" stuff on school papers?
The paper at my school, University of California San Diego, also printed an April Fool's issue and named it The Disreguardian [originally The Guardian] and also had an article joking about rape, while I don't recall exactly what the article entailed a lot of people reacted negatively in the next issue on the letters to the editor and The Guardian promptly apologized.
But what's with all this, "hey rape is funny" stuff on school papers?
claudzilla, I have a sneaking suspicion it might have something to do with Duke. The trolls are coming out from under their rocks and parading and celebrating their tiny victory, in all their disgusting, misogynist glory. It's like, "hey, one woman might possibly maybe have lied or exaggerated about being sexually assaulted, so now rape is officially a joke! Hahaha!"
Act now, & you can receive a lifetime supply of the perfect antidote to the crazy-pills/social Rohypnol of Rape Humour: CASTRATION HUMOUR! Incredibly effective.
100% Guaranteed to send pig-headed Pundits & Creepy Campus Paper Editors running for the exits w/ their hands over their ears crying for Mummy.
Ist 10 000 callers get a free pair of "Planet Terror" Scrotum Shears.
I remember reading a story just like this where a university paper had an article on rape. Just like this one, it was meant to be "satire." The problem with both of these articles is that it's not really satire.
I think people can tell it's a joke, but they don't understand what kind of point the writer was making. Satire is supposed to be funny, but it's still supposed to make a point about something. What point was this guy trying to make about Take Back the Night? That it's good? That's it's stupid? I don't understand. I don't think this guy was actually trying to do satire. I think he's just another asshole who wants to piss off feminists, and later he tried to pass it off as "just satire" when he was being criticized.
The worst thing is that when something like this happens, I can just hear people saying how "feminists can't take a joke" just because they don't find this funny.