Thursday, June 07, 2007

Rape is a hate crime

Last Friday the New York Post reported that Sacha Baron Cohen (no relation) the creator of Ali G on HBO (Da Ali G Show) and more recently the smash hit film Borat is expanding to write a book. Publisher Suzanne Herz told the Post:

"This is Borat, so it's hysterical, very funny. He's become an iconic figure ... It'll be like nothing like you've ever read." The Post also said "that readers should expect Borat to tell tourists [to Kazakhstan] about the 'sports' his country has to offer -- which according to him, include archery, rape, pingpong and dog hunting."

This is not, of course, the first time recently that weak attempts at humor have been used to cover up verbal attacks on women. Remember how shlock jocks Opie & Anthony laughed as "Homeless Charlie," a character on their show talked about how he would like to "fuck that bitch." Opie and Anthony laughed and said, "I just imagine the horror in Condoleezza Rice's face ... as she realizes what's going on ... as you were just holding her down and fucking her." They continued to laugh as "Charlie" talked about punching Rice in the face and raping Laura Bush "to death ."

The extraordinary brutality of all this can't be ignored. It's seems to be part and parcel of a broader right-wing attempt regain control over women; to turn women back into chattel.

That's, after all, what the fight over women's bodies is all about. Women can't be free and liberated unless they can control their own sexuality and their own bodies.

The pseudo-humorous use of rape - the classical weapon of male dominance - needs to be counteracted, not through censorship, but by constantly challenging this use of rape in the guise of humor to attack women.

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