I think we can all agree I am no Feminist, heck I am probably one chromosome away from being a Neanderthal. There are words though in the english language that in it’s meaning and intent are spoken to drive a dagger home so to speak.
There was an article that was in EGM this month that got me thinking about it, and I came across these posts, that really led me to move on this topic. This is not a man, or a woman issue. 1 in 33 men are raped, or sexually molested. So I know alot of guys scream it’s the feminists whining about our male dominated game culture. It isn’t.
This is an issue with our society, and it’s a bigger issue with the gaming community in general. I hear my little teenage nephew scream through his Xbox live, “I just raped you!”, or “BAM, you just got raped son”. To him it’s just a word. It means he just totally destroyed someone. To me it’s more than that. Having been through the prison system where the danger of being raped is constant, or when I walked the halls of a battered womans shelter where alot of women were not just beaten, but raped.
Gaming in itself is filled with violence, so I understand there will be violent words attached to it. Words, like murder, own, kill, destroy, etc…etc. Which is odd I don’t take issues with that. Rape on the other hand is not only a violent word, it’s an act used since the dawn of time, not only as a violent act, but to denigrate that person.
Personally I don’t use the word in my normal rhetoric, like I don’t use alot of other words, not because I’m some uptight person, it’s because even though it’s just a word, there are bad and terrible acts associated to that word. It brings up horrible images in my head, ones that not only I seen but lived through.
Forgive them…for they know not what they do.
I think it’s just alot of Gamers aren’t bad , evil or maleific. I think it’s just what is normal, or expected of them. Sometimes the “normal” thing isn’t the right thing. I think Germany learned that lesson the hard way.
Young gamers don’t understand the real history, concepts, or the damage of rape. I think it’s up to us the older gamers to step forward and not put up with ignorance, and that is all this is, it’s pure ignorance.
There is a part of a quote that I love, that I read long..long ago, so long I forgot the author.
“There are those that know not, and do not know they know not…they are ignorant – teach them. There are those that know not, and know they know not…they are fools – shun them” ` Author Unknown
So next time you scream over vent that you raped that boss, think about what your actually saying, and promoting.
