Dear everybody,
before I start off this chapter, if you joke about something severely traumatic, I want you guys to comment telling me why you think it's okay and why you do it. I'm genuinely baffled and struck, so please, I'd love to understand your view.
Now back to my standpoints, joking about traumatic situations and actions is not okay. Joking about rape, suicide, and racism is in no means a comical or jocose situation that should be turned around into a different scenario aside from what it truly is; traumatizing. Joking about it is accidentally endorsing it. It's not funny, the situation is not comical. It's a sinister way of thinking, and it's not gonna to be accepted here.
If you joke about these things and someone gets offended, you must have some sort of preconceived notion that they have gone through some sort of traumatic experience that entirely relates or somehow does. People gain PTSD from things such as a rape, and by being a human being you should know to not want to trigger or set someone off. Whether you want to call it being sensitive to such a serious and critical issue, people are affected by rape and should never have to deal with their situation being joked about.
Joking about rape or racism is normalizing it. It's like you're indirectly teaching the younger generation that it's okay. That even though rape culture is entirely prevalent, it's okay. That even though POC face harsh things, it's okay. You're teaching them it's okay to invalidate lives because they themselves haven't experienced it. Most importantly, instead of teaching them not to rape, you're doing the opposite and telling them keeping stereotypes alive is totally fine. It's not like so many people are trying to address these issues, and it's not like you're telling them there is no issue.
You're revolting if you think joking about something entirely traumatic will in any way positively change the way we think about it.
What set me off to write this chapter is a few people on Kik that wanted to joke about calling a Muslim a terrorist, and joking about rape. She wished rape on her, which continues to boggle me. This same girl commented on my story a few weeks ago;
saying this, and I didn't really think much of it until her joking actually started to affect people.
Point is, joking about these things can genuinely affect and hurt people. No matter what context, the meaning behind it is derogatory and it doesn't change how you're using it. It any form it is harmful, so saying it's just a joke is not an argument. It's not just a joke. You're inflicting more harm then you think.
Everybody, stop joking about such serious topics. You're going to normalize them into people thinking it's okay.