Saturday, April 11, 2009

"Vote" against "rape" (by Suzie)



         The Huffington Post has an informal (i.e., unscientific) poll going about the rape scene in Seth Rogen's new movie, "Observe and Report." I'm not sure how much good it will do, but why not go over there and vote against the movie. Right now, the winning option is: 
"It's a JOKE people. Get upset about more important things."
         Marcella Chester has a great smack down on this.
         The Huff Post puts date rape in quotation marks. The movie isn't a true story. So, the Post can't be afraid of libel if someone is found not guilty. I suspect the Post doesn't want to bias its readers as to whether the scene depicts rape or not. By using quotation marks, however, it signals its own bias: This isn't real rape.
         Its poll indicates how many people don't understand -- or don't want to understand -- that being raped by someone you know is just as much a crime as being raped by a stranger. In most states, it's rape if someone is too intoxicated to give informed consent.
         Too bad a public service announcement can't run at the beginning of the movie. 
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         ETA: Also see Lindsay Beyerstein's take on the heinous review by Richard Corliss in TIME. 
         ETA2: April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, btw. Here's a link to The Nation, which discusses a boycott of the movie. One reader explains that the rapist in the movie is supposed to be seen as a bad guy. The problem is, film critics, Rogen and others in the movie are not naming this as rape.