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Why John McCain’s Rape Joke Matters |
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Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, ‘Where is that marvelous ape?’
The purpose of jokes like these is to minimize the physical and mental impacts of sexual assault by implying that some women enjoy being raped. The attitude behind it (blame the victim / it isn’t so bad) makes it harder for victims to receive adequate care and treatment, and it makes it harder for advocates to enact meaningful legislative and sentencing reforms.
Here is an article written about the incident at the time. Click for the readable full size image.
Sam Stein at Huffpo has more, including a new statement from the reporter who wrote the story displayed above.
I spoke with T.S. Nelson, author of For Love of Country: Confronting Rape and Sexual Harassment in the U.S. Military today, who also provided a statement:
“Anyone who has experienced a sexual assault (or knows someone who was raped) understands that there is NO excuse for humor or insensitive jokes on this topic. Someone who makes light of this issue is not a person I can respect and certainly not someone I want leading our nation! Wake up, it’s not funny–you’re not in the fraternity anymore.”
More on this from Crooks and Liars, Huffington Post, Think Progress and Raw Story.
Unfortunately, a pattern is emerging.
1986: McCain joked about rape.
1992: McCain called his wife a cunt.
1998: McCain joked about Chelsea Clinton (who was 17 years old at the time) being ugly.
7/9/2008: McCain doesn’t know what his stance on birth control is.
If you think these are just jokes, keep in mind that he opposes equal pay laws too.
The Chelsea Clinton joke wasn’t just about her being ugly…it also took a nasty shot at Janet Reno (something like: why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly, because her father is Janet Reno)
McCain is something less than tactful…see also his recent joke about killing Iranians, the bomb Iran joke, the list goes on–you give some prime examples
and, it should be pointed out, that McCain’s “jokes” parallel his policy views when it comes to women—i.e. he is hardly an advocate for womens’ rights. He is on the same side as the religious right groups that want to “keep women in their place”– he opposes the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (and has opposed similar legislation in the past), he voted against federal funding for contraception, he thinks Roe v. wade should be overturned, and he supports judges who take a dim view of equal rights. He counts among his supporters Tom Coburn, Sam Brownback, and the inaptly named Concerned Women for America, all of whom take a view of women’s rights more suited to the 1950s than today (though they wouldn’t even have been progressives then).
oh sorry, you did note the Equal Pay point, Josh…
Well there’s obviously no evidence to support the claim of this rape joke. Why is it that it wasn’t reported until 7 months after the fact? It was a woman with an agenda who knew his detractors would latch onto the lie.
The claim that he called his wife a c*nt was equally bogus. Only one person has made that claim and nobody else has supported it. People always tell fanciful lies to sell books. Kind of like that American Idol contestant who claimed he had sex with Paula Abdul just so he could sell his book. Naturally, people like you will believe what you want to regardless of the source.
I forgot to mention the equal pay for women act. If you think Obama is for equal pay, you may want to look at how he pays women on his staff. They make much less than the men on his staff. McCain on the other hand is actually paying the women on his staff more than the men on average. Funny how stories can be twisted, isn’t it?