A Sense of Doubt blog post #4134 - SoD Reprint of 1573 from 2019 - The Cult of Outrage
Just this reprint, and I had to fix an image.
Seems time for this message again as the national outrage is a bit out of control on some topics, though not on others.
LOW POWER MODE: I sometimes put the blog in what I call LOW POWER MODE. If you see this note, the blog is operating like a sleeping computer, maintaining static memory, but making no new computations. If I am in low power mode, it's because I do not have time to do much that's inventive, original, or even substantive on the blog. This means I am posting straight shares, limited content posts, reprints, often something qualifying for the THAT ONE THING category and other easy to make posts to keep me daily. That's the deal. Thanks for reading.
BLOG VACATION #1 - 2026 - Taking a blog vacation for a couple of weeks, until at least June 26th, 2026. Mostly reprints. A few simple shares (not that simple shares are out of the norm) and THAT ONE THING. Need time for other things.
Link to the original post I am reprinting below:
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1573 - Cult of Outrage
I have always said that rape jokes are not funny. This one isn't either, but it's also not terribly offensive. It's unfortunate, but it's more thoughtless than endemic of misogyny.
That said, the follow up article on the possibility that as many men are sexually assaulted as women per year is startling, especially given how prison statistics affect the numbers.
This post has been hanging around in my queue for years, though not quite five years.
http://issuehawk.com/patton/2014/06/24/cult-of-outrage-brittany-furlan-and-the-rape-joke-that-may-have-been-in-poor-taste-or-genius.html
Cult of Outrage: Brittany Furlan and the Rape Joke That Was Either In Poor Taste or Genius
Read more at https://issuehawk.com/patton/2014/06/24/cult-of-outrage-brittany-furlan-and-the-rape-joke-that-may-have-been-in-poor-taste-or-genius.html#5VfaeemeLHSIcHFP.99
Brittany Furlan is a comedian who found her fanbase on the social network Vine, shooting and starring in seven second videos. Furlan and a number of other “vine famous” people she often films with have made their names with irreverent comedy, often with little context.
So Furlan was working the red carpet with Lauren Elizabeth (who found her fame on YouTube) and interviewing some handsome actor from a soap opera that is somehow still on the air. After generally fawning over his handsomeness and making suggestive jokes about “backstage” Furlan ended the interview by saying “Let’s get you away from us before we rape you.”
And cue Twitter outrage. According to Mediaite.com, not only were people actually watching the red carpet for the Daytime Emmys but some of them were actually willing to admit it by tweeting their disgust for Furlan’s joke.
Hey #daytimeemmys maybe hire some red carpet "hosts" w a little less black and rape jokes next year. These girls have the verbal runs.— Brandon Barash (@BrandonBarash) June 22, 2014
Most notably, some other actor from the same soap opera (there can’t be more than one still on, right?) tweeted, “Hey #daytimeemmys maybe hire some red carpet “hosts” [with] a little less black and rape jokes next year. These girls have the verbal runs.
For fans of Furlan’s previous work, the edginess doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Yet is it fair to give more famous comedians who have done “questionable” material in the past a pass, but excoriate Furlan? Was her joke tasteless or was she cleverly subverting traditional stereotypes? The immediacy of Twitter doesn’t allow much time for reflection.
Maybe this wasn’t a high-minded bit that sought to subvert the traditional male-on-female violence paradigm (although, you could argue that it does that if only inadvertently), but an off-the-cuff remark that was, at worst, in poor taste. Yet, the outrage machine loves victims like Furlan, because while Patton Oswalt can take time off from social media without negatively impacting his career, a comedian like Furlan cannot.
While it is remarkably well-intentioned, as always the outrage is misplaced. Yes, Furlan’s joke played on the old stereotype that rape happens when someone “gets too excited” about how the victim looks. The fact that a woman saying that to a man is noticed this way, suggests that perhaps the stereotype that men are always the perpetrators and women always the victims is falling out of fashion.
Yet “taking down” Furlan neither advances the cause nor does anything to help the actual victims who are being let down by the system. Of course, trashing a comedian – especially one who is not an established brand – is far easier than addressing the substantive problems affecting rape survivors.
Instead, activists of all stripes seek to imbue “their word” with the same kind of fearful power as the name of the main villain in Harry Potter. Spoiler warning, but at one point the eponymous character tells his friends that by referring to the villain as “Voldemort” rather than “You-know-who” gives him an added power he doesn’t really have. That is what is happening with words today. People hear “rape” and regardless of the context, fire off their outrage into the ether.
Rape is a serious social problem across the world and one that is not likely to go away because of some miracle legislation or great awakening in society (although one can hope). Hiding the word away, especially absent of context, will make it easier for society to forget about the real problem and take satisfaction in the false victory of “banning” the word.
Hashtag activism isn’t always lazy and unproductive, but this kind almost always is.
https://latest.com/2014/04/new-study-finds-men-as-likely-to-be-victims-of-rape-as-women/
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1906.11 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1438 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2606.12 - 10:10
- Days ago: MOM = 3998 days ago & DAD = 652 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
