Saturday, October 03, 2009

Basic Instructions

Recently (in my timeline anyway) there was this Basic Instructions comic:



Have you read it? OK, let's talk about it then.

Some people in the comments noted that panel three could be read in several different ways. It could be the boss and his lady (obviously), or it could be the boss and Scott, or it could be the boss and his lady with the characters swapped around and it would still make sense (and be funny). Also, it could be rape.

When you got to panel three, did you think "Oh my god, he's raping that woman?" Because, if you did there's something wrong with you.

When I originally read it, I didn't think that at all, so it came as quite a surprise when Scott Meyer's newspost about the controversy came up. I was quite taken aback. This was my response:
This situation depicted is absolutely NOT RAPE, and it offends me that people are saying that it is.

Has the woman clearly communicated that she wishes him to stop? Obviously not, otherwise he would. He is not continuing KNOWING that she wants him to stop; if he did know she wanted him to stop, he would. That's not rape.

What if a woman says stop in a language she knows her partner doesn't understand? Is that rape? How could he know?

What if a woman just THINKS stop? Is that rape? Absurd. Men aren't mind readers.

Despite what a commenter stated, it is not enough for the woman to just want her partner to stop, she has to communicate that want.

Knowing people that HAVE been raped (in some cases, quite violently), it SICKENS me that you people would trivialize the word. You debase its value when you apply it to situations like this. Real rape is unbelievably horrific, and to take that concept and apply it to this harmless cartoon angers me to my core.

You should be ashamed of yourselves.
tl;dr
Not everything is rape (just like not everyone you disagree with is Hitler). Stop saying it is.

(A side note about Scott Meyer: I like and respect him, and not because he's funny. [Dilbert is funny, but Scott Adams is a retarded tool.] Scott Meyer is a prince among men, and I'm going to keep saying that until it catches on. In e-mail he has been unfailingly polite and responsive [when my comments for this comic didn't post, he unlocked it and responded to my e-mail in less than three minutes. That's service.] Say it! Say Scott Meyer is a prince among men. SAY IT!)

tl;dr
Scott Meyer is a prince among men.

2 comments:

  1. From a females perspective, I also don't view it as rape. In fact, I interpret it in 2 different ways; 1 being she wants him to "get off" as in finish, or 2 maybe they are in some position where he's pinching her leg or other body part causing pain.. thus the get off, as in move. But no where does it imply rape to me.

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  2. Right? I still get angry thinking about it.

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