Stop Being so "PC": Daniel Tosh and Rape Jokes

Not so funny Tosh, I wish I could give him a scumbag hat too.

On Daniel Tosh's rape joke: It's not a matter of being politically correct or "PC" it's about addressing the dynamics of power that go into a situation where you have a male asserting his dominance by retorting, "Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by like, 5 guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her…” Some people have argued that it all depends of how Tosh intonated the previous statement- that if he said it in a jokingly manner and not in a hostile one that it would be okay and acceptable. But it's not in this case because the words themselves are so threatening in carrying the intent of sexual violence against a womyn, not only by one man, but by a group of men- a criminal reality that is all too well within the possibilities of material realities for women to this day. However, the next and perhaps more significant issue is how can a statement of gang rape or rape in general be funny? Could it be imagined that if indeed that female or any other female audience member was gang raped right there, right then, in the past, or in the future by one or as Tosh suggested, five men, that could somehow elicit some comedic reflex? That sexual violence against a woman or women or actually anyone in that matter could be funny? I don't have to imagine that the female individual had to be someone I personally know in order to find Tosh's statement's not only insulting, but also threatening. And I bring in the word threatening because that is where the power analysis comes into play- that Tosh as a white straight cis male celebrity has more much power in a male dominated environment in both the bar where the incident occurred, but also in society over a single womyn, not to mention if she was a womyn of color- the threat of rape and gang rape does seem all the more possible to the point where I am not surprised that the female individual left in fear for her safety. Rape isn't something that Tosh or his male audience members for the most part have any material fears about (or even me as a male identified individual)- and it's about time that they recognize that male privilege and the oppression they impose through that privilege as misogyny and sexism. And so I bring it back to the initial point of political correctness by really challenging people to ask what does being PC mean? What is PC? What isn't PC? How far does PC go? Personally, I think its term that is ultimately a very superficial excuse used by people shielding themselves from their own privileges and the oppression of others and by those would either willfully or ignorantly assume to live in a power static world. By being either PC or un-PC is to disavow the history of violence that shapes both the present realities and future possibilities of society. In conclusion then rape isn't funny because it isn't "PC", rape is not funny because violence against womyn in a heteropatriarchal society isn't a joke or statement without consequences but is a material reality that scars the bodies and psyches womyn all over the world as a result of institutional structures of power.

For the original tumblr post: Click Here 
To sign Change.org petition to pull Tosh off the air: Click Here

High Maitenance

To the white guy who posted a

Newspaper clipping of

Vietnamese mail order brides,

Saying

This is for all the homeboys

With yellow fever who don't want

High maintenance

Americanized

Viet girls...

 To the white guy who

Astutely commented

With an emphasis on the

ASS in ass-tutely,

‎Although it still goes on today,

Pretty much almost everywhere else in the world

Where they haven’t adopted a

Western-type culture for their society.

To this white guy

This dipshit, I say:

You must have missed the memo

That "western culture" has been

Dominating, subjugating, and

Destroying societies since antiquity.

Cue fact,

That antiquity already automatically indexes

Greco-Roman-Western ancient society.

As if nothing else mattered.

You probably missed the other memo too,

About the horrific human trafficking

That goes on within the US

Apparently the epitome of western society

Just isn't western enough...

High maintenance

Americanized Viet girls?

What's really HIGH MAINTAINENANCE

Is dealing with dipshits like you

Who forget that

WE ARE HERE

CUASE YOU FUCKED IT UP

OVER THERE

And go on to spew garbage that is

Misogynistic as hell and

Perpetuates the continual oppression of

Communities not only in this country,

But also across the world.

For all the guys who said "YEAH"

Why don't you ask yourself

If you would still say that if it were

Your mother, your sister, your child who is

Trapped in that scenario?

What would you say to the other guys

Who would still be saying "YEAH"?

OR DOES ONE ALWAYS

HAVE TO GO SO FAR INTO

HYPOTHETICALS

WITHOUT REALIZING THE

SERIOUSNESS OF THE ISSUE,

WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO RECOGNIZE

THAT COMMUNITY IS IN FACT

AN EXTENSION OF YOURSELF?

THAT WHAT HAPPENS TO "OTHERS"

ALSO MATTERS TO YOURSELF?!

So before you start calling

Women who refuse to part of your

Fucked up orientalist exotifications

"High maintenance"

 Why don't you contemplate about how

High maintenance your

Ignorance is to others who have to

Deal with the pain of reading your

Stupid words and process it by typing up

A damned long response to it on Facebook.

Shit.