Rape being used as a word indicating domination and success within gaming has come under a great deal of scrutiny since the LagTV incident the other day on NASL, half-time. For those who have not yet read on the subject, LagTV was invited to bring its relatively popular YouTube series "When Cheese Fails," in which "cheesy" play is attempted and... well failed. The main feature of the show is the two hosts, NovaWar and Maximus Black, with their somewhat vulgar senses of humor and "Car Guys"-esque ability to laugh at their own joke.
During the premiere of the show the NASL many a crass joke was made, as was expected, and the term rape was used to indicate how well one player was competing against another. This last point set the forums ablaze, with debates on the true meaning of word, the relevance of the show to the NASL on the whole and a great deal of counter-reaction to those who felt shock. It went so far that LagTV even felt compelled to issue an apology concerning the episode, and has buried it entirely.
Destiny, with his own tendency to roll out the vulgarities, has generally been used as the model for "offensive" humor, and has been outspoken in disassociating the use of the word "rape" in a game with the act of forcing sex with an unwilling partner.
For those who find the word offensive, they site the horror of the experience and the number of rape survivors who have yet to experience any sort of justice in relation to their case.
I feel compelled to share my own opinion on the matter, in blog format no less, and here it is.
Rape is not only the most appropriate word to use in gaming situations, it's the ONLY one, and should be used more often.
What the mother-fuck, let's get serious people. Moving your marines in a skilled fashion, using your keyboard and mouse to their utmost mechanical limits to gain an advantage over your enemy in a science fiction themed video game is so similar to actual, real, "happens every day to someone" rape that I can't believe people don't see the connection. OBVIOUSLY when you've brought out hellions to kill a person's workers the first thing you should be recalling is a veiny, hairy phallus penetrating deep into someone's orifices forcefully.
As a Protoss, when you blink or warp units into someone's base sneakily and take out a key tech structure and retreat with minimal or even no losses, don't you also imagine sneaking through the second story window of your neighbor's house, tying him and his wife up and having your frightful, terrifying way with their faces, torsos and feet? Hell, you got time since you cut the phone line, go for the shoulder blades! Just make sure you mask your voice so you can have breakfast with the after Sunday mass next week!
And as Zerg... are you fucking kidding me, have you SEEN the nydus worm?
It's like Blizzard WANTS you to buy a pair of leather gloves and a bottle of chloroform. Hell, Heart of the Swarm is going to include ten hits of Rohypnol:
And have you ever SEEN a spine crawler attack a spore crawler? Did the spore crawler consent to that? CAN a spore crawler consent? Is it really rape if they have no way of communicating that to you? If not, where does that put donkeys in the continuum of rape?
[Insert hilarious video of above mentioned act... the spore/spine thing not donkeys]
As we can plainly see, rape is an incredibly appropriate term to use in gaming to indicate domination, and especially so with Starcraft 2. As many have mentioned, it's the intention and context of a word that matters, and we all know that beating a 16-20 year old male in a strategy video game is extremely similar to forcing your dick into someone's anus, varied and multicolored fluids (and semi-solids!) dripping out the back as tears flow out the front.
I really hope this post has enlightened the reader, and that you come away from it with this:
Using rape in a video game context is notcompletely fucking ridiculous and there'snot a reason in the worldwhy people might be justifiably offended by it.
OP is either a really insensitive prick or trolling, but I guess the desensitisation of todays society has gone so far that the feelings of potentially offended people don't matter anymore.
On April 20 2011 20:50 thebike wrote: Wow, people are REALLY bad at understanding the point of this post.
The point of this post is to use humour to belittle all the discussion that's going on around this subject, and perhaps suggest that people are over-reacting. Or that's what I got from it.
I'm all for trying to lighten the mood, but I didn't find the tone of this post did that. If people put forward their opinion either for or against using certain words then they should.
I'm just frustrated that it seems these days people can't express an opinion around here without being insulted or ridiculed.
I don't use the word nor do I really enjoy other people using it.
Part of this is simply because of the original meanings of the word, but also another part of my disdain for it might be because the first I had heard it used in a gaming sense was over ventrilo while playing Battlefield a couple of years ago, by this annoying high pitched, 12 year old american kid who used it in almost every sentence. As a result of that I end up associating others who use it with the same kid.
I also don't use the word "owned". It offends my fellow black brethren whom were once cruelly shackled against their will and forced to do hard labor for very little pay.
Aww someone beat me to it. But in NFL 95 on Sega Genesis you could make your black players say, "I OWN YOU", it was awesome.
every once and a while the white knights of the internet get all uppity about the word and its usage, then things return to normal. Such is the ebb and flow of the intranets.
On April 20 2011 21:30 Squeegy wrote: I also don't use the word 'win' because it offends those who lost.
Exactly, phrases like "I beat you", or "I killed you" also offend those who are affected by domestic violence or even assault, either to themselves or to a family member. We really have to be careful with what we say on the internet.
But truthfully, I don't think it should be on the NASL stream. It's fine in forums and chat and everything else, but if we are trying to reach out to larger audience we shouldn't have anything that wouldn't be on TV.
The word rape didn't have sexual connotations until very recently, the original term simply meant "To seize or take by force" which is exactly what happens in a game like SC2.... so we use the term rape correctly.
Words are just words, if the NASL was being broadcast from Europe, this wouldn't even be up for discussion. Its not on TV, this game is rated TEEN and if you are old enough to understand and play it, you are old enough to hear swearing and words you might find offensive.
The thing about offensives words are that, its personal whether you find something offensive or not. I find terms like faggot offensive, because I am bi, but I don't find many other far worse words offensive at all....... if NASL started using the word faggot alot, I would complain as its a term only applied in a negative way to describe gay people..... using the word rape is offensive to no one, since its just a word to describe a thing, not a person.
As gamers, we should coin the new term "gamerape". This would allow for all gamers to use the term rape in it's gamer defined fashion while also appeasing those who may be offended by it!
I will say though, on day 1 of NASL I believe Gretorp used the word rape several times during the telecast, if not rape then definitely another word that had me thinking "man, that's really not a great word for a 'professional' caster to be using". I'm fine with the use of the word in gaming, however if it's something that's going to be viewed by more 5k people, I'd tend to say watching the language would be the smartest course of action
On April 20 2011 21:50 emythrel wrote: The word rape didn't have sexual connotations until very recently, the original term simply meant "To seize or take by force" which is exactly what happens in a game like SC2.... so we use the term rape correctly.
Words are just words, if the NASL was being broadcast from Europe, this wouldn't even be up for discussion. Its not on TV, this game is rated TEEN and if you are old enough to understand and play it, you are old enough to hear swearing and words you might find offensive.
The thing about offensives words are that, its personal whether you find something offensive or not. I find terms like faggot offensive, because I am bi, but I don't find many other far worse words offensive at all....... if NASL started using the word faggot alot, I would complain as its a term only applied in a negative way to describe gay people..... using the word rape is offensive to no one, since its just a word to describe a thing, not a person.
I can see why people might be offended and even though I'm not, if we can choose to use words that are less offensive at no cost to ourselves, why not? If instead of raping my opponent, I can prosper greatly from the fruits of my efforts, why not prosper?
If someone keeps over 1k/1k in the bank i'm gonna start say they are niggardly with their resources. Hey bro i'm just using the original meaning of the word here!
I think it's a good word but I'd like it if the casters would vary their language a bit more using replacements for the word "rape" such as ravaged or violated. It would bring alot of variety into the casts
On April 20 2011 22:18 DorF wrote: I think it's a good word but I'd like it if the casters would vary their language a bit more using replacements for the word "rape" such as ravaged or violated. It would bring alot of variety into the casts
I agree with this. I don't mind casters using the word rape at all, but i do mind repetition (see gretorps "HUUUUUGE" ever 30 secs in NASL). Also, pretty funny post :>
On April 20 2011 22:18 DorF wrote: I think it's a good word but I'd like it if the casters would vary their language a bit more using replacements for the word "rape" such as ravaged or violated. It would bring alot of variety into the casts
I agree with this. I don't mind casters using the word rape at all, but i do mind repetition (see gretorps "HUUUUUGE" ever 30 secs in NASL). Also, pretty funny post :>
and it's a pet peeve of mine whenever a one-sided game spawns a series of posts in an LR thread that all just say "rape" "lol rape" "omg rape haha" "raaaaape" etc...
If I was worried about offending people over the internet I don't think I would have been posting on forums, much less uploading videos. You won't find a person with a more crude sense of humor than me very easily. Incidentally, I've never had a single person complain about such vocabulary.
I think it would be more clever to find extremely obscure euphemisms for words out there in a Problem Sleuth manner, but as my English is terrible, I haven't been able to incorporate very many into my casting yet.
On April 20 2011 21:56 Battleaxe wrote: As gamers, we should coin the new term "gamerape". This would allow for all gamers to use the term rape in it's gamer defined fashion while also appeasing those who may be offended by it!
I will say though, on day 1 of NASL I believe Gretorp used the word rape several times during the telecast, if not rape then definitely another word that had me thinking "man, that's really not a great word for a 'professional' caster to be using". I'm fine with the use of the word in gaming, however if it's something that's going to be viewed by more 5k people, I'd tend to say watching the language would be the smartest course of action
edit: I has bad english in the morning
If you are not listening to closely or paying close attention, "gamerape" almost sounds like "gang rape" and I think this might be even worse...
I'm the sort of person who probably would have been offended by the word rape being used originally; but now I've heard it so often in a gaming context I have become desensitized and don't really think about it any more. In my head, rape used in gaming has no relation to the crime, it's like in my head they have become two different words with the same pronunciation, if that makes sense.
Having said that though, I don't use the word in that way myself; and I can certainly understand why some people would be upset by it. I rather suspect (though I have no way of knowing) that the boys who use the word to describe games haven't been raped.
If I was running a casting thing, I would probably suggest my casters didn't use the term, in the same way I would suggest they not swear. Ie. not sackable offense but needless.
Use of certain words always depends on the context and audience used in front of. You can call a friend an idiot and get a laugh or call a stranger an idiot and get punched in the face.
My group of friends in Ventrilo replaced the word 'rape' with 'butterfly'. Doesn't mean that we consider rape a joke, but that we as human beings recognize that some people take the word (as opposed to the action) rape too seriously, so we PG-13'd it.
Now, if we're talking about actual no-kidding rapists in a context that implies some level of serious discussion, obviously it isn't a joking matter.
It's amazing to see serious discussion that is seemingly oblivious of the joke justification for using the word "rape" in SC2 casting. I mean, usually the serious discussion would follow about the tact of the OP.
...
I guess this is why they say you should have something to really grab a reader's/viewer's attention early on in something, otherwise they just don't pay attention.
Back in the brood war days, I made a strong effort never to say rape, gay, or faggot in anything I do. I said to everyone that instead of rape you should say bop, and that's where I got bop clowns. Please don't spread stupid rumors that I said that because it is without a doubt untrue. I wouldn't say anything like that as it hasn't been part of my vocabulary for a very long time. Thank you.
On April 20 2011 22:18 DorF wrote: I think it's a good word but I'd like it if the casters would vary their language a bit more using replacements for the word "rape" such as ravaged or violated. It would bring alot of variety into the casts
I cant tell if your being serious or just extremely sarcastic. I hope its the Latter.
I'm not a fan of using that word in relation to Video Games, I don't ever use it. It just brings up very negative connotations to me and I think its another symptom of the desensitization to violence that comes with video games. Lots of my friends use it often, but I don't berate them for it or anything.
I hope that it gets phased out over time, I really don't like hearing it. It doesn't provide any actual information or content except to say that one person is winning.
I think most people use words like this either because all their friends use it or because they aren't clever enough to come up with a better description of what happened.
Personally, whether the OP was being sarcastic or not(if he was, it was not obvious at ALL), I think this is being discussed way more than it actually needs to.
I view the term rape in it's common gaming usage the same way I do vulgar language; there is nothing wrong with saying the words if you don't have a bad intention behind them or are just throwing it around playfully, but you can't just go around screaming it to the world. No matter what you do, people will get offended. Fuck, shit, bitch, etc. are all fine if you're around friends who you know are okay with these terms. The same goes for rape.
Casters don't often use vulgar language to avoid offending people, and for good reason! Why would you want to turn away speculative viewers and followers of the community? As such, rape should be with those terms.
Not to mention, its just a lazy, uncreative way to get your point across. I think I've covered my point.
I dunno, really the only word in gamer lingo that offends me is "rape" and I'm a guy. I think the main reason why is because "raped" is often used as a positive adjective in the SC2 scene instead of a negative one. (Much more often than the use of "fucked" which is kinda in the same ballpark)
So "I raped him" bothers me but "He raped me" doesn't. Or "man, player X is so good he totally raped player Y" instead of "wow that wasn't even close, player Y just got raped"
Another problem is that the SC2 scene is already sooo heavily male dominated that its easy to misinterpret its use as sexist. I know most gamers intend to use it as just another synomnyn of "destroy" "crush" "kill" "own" etc, however thats difficult for people not familiar with the scene to understand.
IMO if ESports ever wants to go mainstream it will have to drop language like that from the vocab at professional events from casters/commentators/players. Thats just the way it is for the greater society. That being said I have no problem with it.
If it's on forums and ladder matches, it's fine. At the highest level, competition should be professional, and polite. E-Sports is not going to grow if such words are used.
On April 20 2011 20:30 KingVietKong wrote:Using rape in a video game context is notcompletely fucking ridiculous and there'snot a reason in the worldwhy people might be justifiably offended by it.
Hm... so... I was going to go land my CC at the gold expo on metal to found out that the zerg player I was up against managed to n***** it before I could get to it. Granted, n***** is a loaded word, but we all know that the sc2 players are all white and korean anyways, so I don't see why anyone would be offended by a caster talking about one progamer, say, n*****ing a gas from a Terran player with his scouting drone. This word is being used in a different context and NOBODY should be offended by it.
Hopefully this has demonstrated to you the problem with your line of argument.
The logic behind this is stupid to an incredible degree. Whether or not people "should" be offended is not the issue, stop being morons and trying to prove that point one way or another. Hint: you're never going to do it, even with clever bold and italicizing.
The issue is that they are, and a large number of an outside audience is. It is not difficult for us to stop using it in the side of the community we present as "professional", and is in no way an unreasonable request. The choice of action is pretty fucking obvious here, especially in a place where everyone claims to want to "make esports happen" or whatever the catchphrase is this week.
On April 21 2011 22:54 Kenpachi wrote: bleh. it feels like were discussing Huckleberry Finn
Agreed. I wonder why people don't take offense to 'owned.'
do you actually wonder that?
No, I know precisely why they don't take offense but I'm also positive they would stop using the word if they were in front of a bunch of NAACP members. You can eliminate a couple obvious words like 'rape' that don't serve much of a purpose, but I'm not convinced that the current trend of becoming politically correct and bland is the best way for the game to become "mainstream" and no one has shown how it will. When people talk about professionalism, they're just preaching to the choir full of idiots.
To be honest, I don't think ESPORTS will ever be mainstream (hint: IGN is not mainstream nor is G4) and at best will be a popular niche. And you know what you're allowed to do as a niche? Be a goddamn motherfucking cocksucker because you're not trying to appeal to the Walmart's of the world. You're allowed to wear a tshirt with a coat and you're allowed to cuss and swear and BM. Everyone's in a race to be an asshole like Tony Hawk but the ultra clean image didn't improve his sport besides selling video games, and right now the fastest growing sports/niche entertainment are dominated by assholes.
Where's the uproar? Has Strikeforce issued any statements or has Thierry been removed from the team? What about Joe Rogan's rape choke? Has UFC suspended him?
If you have a moral issue with the word being used, then at least say it so we can discuss it just like we have with bitch, fag and every other offensive word ever. Don't pull out that professionalism bullshit.
that is just mindnumbingly off target. first, your implication is that only people who can be directly impacted by the word are the ones who find it offensive, which is implying that only hypersensitivity to an issue results in being offended by it. that is completely wrong--i am a dude, i have never been raped nor can i think of anyone i know who has been impacted by it, but i find it unnecessary, crass, and idiotic. empathy is a possible human emotion
this isn't a matter of professionalism, it's a matter of not being a jackass, and being a niche submarket that does not have the same requirements for professionalism as a major market sport does not grant you a right to be a jackass, especially if its at the expense of further isolating that niche from anyone else.
i don't think MMA is going to help your argument here at all, plenty of athletes say stupid things all the time, but the participants in a sport are judged by a completely different standard than the commentators of that sport, and if you can't see the difference there i can't help you.
this isn't a question of "getting away with saying these things." you can say all the hateful words you want in a sc2 cast, because in the end it's something viewed by an extremely small subset of people that has no impact on anything. the larger problem is a community so quick to excuse a culture of jackass behavior, which annoys me at best and disgusts me at worst, and it's my hope that casters try to set a better example than the community does at all times
I personally know someone that was raped. I didn't think much of the word until after that incident. Please don't use it as it's a very violent and evil crime that specifically, for the most part, is against females.
On April 22 2011 06:38 benjammin wrote: that is just mindnumbingly off target. first, your implication is that only people who can be directly impacted by the word are the ones who find it offensive, which is implying that only hypersensitivity to an issue results in being offended by it. that is completely wrong--i am a dude, i have never been raped nor can i think of anyone i know who has been impacted by it, but i find it unnecessary, crass, and idiotic. empathy is a possible human emotion
That's not the implication at all. The implication is that 'own' as a term of domination in gaming stems from the exact same place as 'rape', yet no one has seemed to notice or care.
i don't think MMA is going to help your argument here at all, plenty of athletes say stupid things all the time, but the participants in a sport are judged by a completely different standard than the commentators of that sport, and if you can't see the difference there i can't help you.
this isn't a question of "getting away with saying these things." you can say all the hateful words you want in a sc2 cast, because in the end it's something viewed by an extremely small subset of people that has no impact on anything. the larger problem is a community so quick to excuse a culture of jackass behavior, which annoys me at best and disgusts me at worst, and it's my hope that casters try to set a better example than the community does at all times
Joe Rogan is a caster and if you'll look on the sidebar right now, the most popular stream is the one run by the person who not only used rape as a meaningless, contextless word (which I don't care about) but actually described it step by step in the context of a SC2 game, which I found disgusting.
My point is that it's just a word and when it has no context, it shouldn't be treated as such. On top of that, I think the professionalism argument is completely frivolous and whether or not words like rape or fag are actually used will have little to no effect on the growth of ESPORTS.
On April 22 2011 06:38 benjammin wrote: that is just mindnumbingly off target. first, your implication is that only people who can be directly impacted by the word are the ones who find it offensive, which is implying that only hypersensitivity to an issue results in being offended by it. that is completely wrong--i am a dude, i have never been raped nor can i think of anyone i know who has been impacted by it, but i find it unnecessary, crass, and idiotic. empathy is a possible human emotion
That's not the implication at all. The implication is that 'own' as a term of domination in gaming stems from the exact same place as 'rape', yet no one has seemed to notice or care.
no it doesn't, that's why no one cares
i don't think MMA is going to help your argument here at all, plenty of athletes say stupid things all the time, but the participants in a sport are judged by a completely different standard than the commentators of that sport, and if you can't see the difference there i can't help you.
this isn't a question of "getting away with saying these things." you can say all the hateful words you want in a sc2 cast, because in the end it's something viewed by an extremely small subset of people that has no impact on anything. the larger problem is a community so quick to excuse a culture of jackass behavior, which annoys me at best and disgusts me at worst, and it's my hope that casters try to set a better example than the community does at all times
Joe Rogan is a caster and if you'll look on the sidebar right now, the most popular stream is the one run by the person who not only used rape as a meaningless, contextless word (which I don't care about) but actually described it step by step in the context of a SC2 game, which I found disgusting.
My point is that it's just a word and when it has no context, it shouldn't be treated as such. On top of that, I think the professionalism argument is completely frivolous and whether or not words like rape or fag are actually used will have little to no effect on the growth of ESPORTS.
destiny's personal user stream is vastly different than a game being broadcast for something with corporate sponsors, do you see the difference?
context is always personal, that's why people will think you are a jackass when you say something that has a different meaning to them
i would hope our community aims higher than joe rogan
Again with the sponsorship argument. The same ones who have sponsored Quake and CS for years, and have put up with this without complaint? They may not put a word on their product's box, but when their player says that kind of stuff or even worse, acts in an inappropriate way, they've never done anything. The idea that people should do things due to professionalism is like telling your kids to go to bed because the boogie man will get them. No one wants to question it, but they should because it's never had a negative effect in ESPORTS and it's certainly not holding back other niche activities. The most sponsored player right now still goes about the same way, without negative consequence to his Kingston and Bigfoot deals. What about when BW pros say they took the other player on a tour?
Context shouldn't be personal, and I know TL posters agree because when someone made a thread about a black person getting upset at "nigah" in Chinese, everyone here said the black guy was in the wrong.
On April 22 2011 07:06 Jibba wrote: Again with the sponsorship argument. The same ones who have sponsored Quake and CS for years, and have put up with this without complaint? They may not put a word on their product's box, but when their player says that kind of stuff or even worse, acts in an inappropriate way, they've never done anything. The idea that people should do things due to professionalism is like telling your kids to go to bed because the boogie man will get them. No one wants to question it, but they should because it's never had a negative effect in ESPORTS and it's certainly not holding back other niche activities.
Context shouldn't be personal, and I know TL posters agree because when someone made a thread about a black person getting upset at "nigah" in Chinese, everyone here said the black guy was in the wrong.
i can't speak for the CS community, but this did become a problem in the quake community, specifically the phrase "spawn rape" which was changed to "spawn frag" or "conversion kill" as a result, and iirc djWHEAT was a big advocate for this change but i don't want to put words in his mouth.
i don't know what you are arguing if you think context shouldn't be personal. should we all be a collective hive mind that responds to language identically?
On April 22 2011 07:23 Jibba wrote: Context should be attributed to the speaker. Demeaning women was not part of the context when Demuslim said 'rape' at Dreamhack.
Most of the people who argue against using any words associated with domination in a game of ... domination, do not understand the English language. Many words have multiple meanings. Just because in a video game, you use the word rape, murder, owned, etc. does not correlate to actually murdering another human being, or raping another individual (and rape is not only against women....how sexist of you! :: rollseyes :: ). In any event, it appears you (benjammin, and others) have a problem with the English language. I'm perfectly fine with the English language myself. Perhaps you should switch to a language which doesn't use the same word for multiple meanings.
PS: I also think there is a distinct lack of common sense in the general populace in today's world. That and society is becoming too effiminate....
On April 20 2011 20:50 thebike wrote: Wow, people are REALLY bad at understanding the point of this post.
The point of this post is to use humour to belittle all the discussion that's going on around this subject, and perhaps suggest that people are over-reacting. Or that's what I got from it.
I'm all for trying to lighten the mood, but I didn't find the tone of this post did that. If people put forward their opinion either for or against using certain words then they should.
I'm just frustrated that it seems these days people can't express an opinion around here without being insulted or ridiculed.
Seems your sarcasm detector is completely broken.
Try reading his post again, ESPECIALLY the last sentence (reading only the bolded words)....
If you find it embarrassing to use the word in that context in front of a non-gamer (specifically a female) then you shouldn't be using it at all.
Personally I don't like the word being used to describe one player dominating another. Its use isn't the result of 'rape' being a good word to use, it's the result of gaming being a boys only club with nobody to hold them accountable.
People say the meaning has changed now, but it really hasn't.
There is another thread on this topic? Don't you all know that every time a gamer says rape, an e-sports fairy dies? The only way SC2 will ever go mainstream is with a properly sanitized vocabulary!
I'm going to go ahead and bump this thread because of a good parallel I heard while watching sports (on super serious TV btw) today.
The word molested. I feel that every single argument used against the word rape in lingo can also be applied to the word molested. And yet it's entirely common place to hear a guy on ESPN talking about a receiver getting to the open position unmolested or a guy on TSN talk about a player getting to the net unmolested. Does each time an announcer using this word cause a torrent of altar boys to mail the station? Probably not. So I just want to ask what the real difference is here. Why do we villainize the word rape while the word molest goes unmolested? Food for thought.
On August 15 2011 10:35 Flaccid wrote: I'm going to go ahead and bump this thread because of a good parallel I heard while watching sports (on super serious TV btw) today.
The word molested. I feel that every single argument used against the word rape in lingo can also be applied to the word molested. And yet it's entirely common place to hear a guy on ESPN talking about a receiver getting to the open position unmolested or a guy on TSN talk about a player getting to the net unmolested. Does each time an announcer using this word cause a torrent of altar boys to mail the station? Probably not. So I just want to ask what the real difference is here. Why do we villainize the word rape while the word molest goes unmolested? Food for thought.
I think the way its used by the football people (like "unmolested") actually came first. That would make the difference really significant if thats true.
On August 15 2011 10:35 Flaccid wrote: I'm going to go ahead and bump this thread because of a good parallel I heard while watching sports (on super serious TV btw) today.
The word molested. I feel that every single argument used against the word rape in lingo can also be applied to the word molested. And yet it's entirely common place to hear a guy on ESPN talking about a receiver getting to the open position unmolested or a guy on TSN talk about a player getting to the net unmolested. Does each time an announcer using this word cause a torrent of altar boys to mail the station? Probably not. So I just want to ask what the real difference is here. Why do we villainize the word rape while the word molest goes unmolested? Food for thought.
The words molest and harass are not necessarily sexual, while the word rape is. To say that hellions are 'harassing' a mineral line or that a dropship escapes a base 'unmolested' are accurate uses of those words, but to say an army rapes another is not. That's my interpretation, at least.
I came to TL and searched if any threads on the use of the term rape existed and I found this one. The following is a cross post from my post on Reddit I wanted to share here as well and keep hearing what people think about this. I believe it's an important topic on the ethical level.
About the use of the word "rape" when reffering to games and in the gaming community in general. I for one don't appreciate it at all. I don't want this to come accross as though i'm telling anyone how they should express themselves, everyone has the right to choose.
However some people forget just how negative a connotation the word "rape" has. In my view it is being freely used by people that have never been exposed to a real life rape or don't have to worry about it. Rape is a scary reality for women in general or people that have actually been raped or are close to a rape victim. Saying to your male buddy "my voids raped your roaches" in a game is very different that saying it to a woman or a rape victim. It's as though many in the gaming community forget that they're using words that can really hurt and affect people depending on their life experiences. It shows ignorance and insensitiveness to other people and their feelings. Do you ever hear respected casters use that term? No because it's immature, negative and can really offend. They could lose their jobs if they did, it's quite serious to misuse this term as is being done alot.
Saying "rape that bitch" is degrading, there's no justifying it in my view. when will these people ever grow up and stop using the word rape everywhere?
If it matters, I'm fortunate enough to never have been directly exposed to rape on myself or anyone very close to me
My fiance hates when we're together, maybe she's doing homework, I'm playing a game and I'm on ventrilo, and I said something to someone like, 'Oh wow, you raped that attack' - she really hates that. I've had to learn not to say that anymore, and even though I don't mean to offend anyone by saying it, I can see why women would be offended by it. It's the same reason why I don't say things are retarded, I can see why that be offensive, and it's not a good habit to have if you're looking for a job in the service sector, or some other thing.
I think it's crass and unprofessional, but I'm not liking the idea that only women can be raped/can be offended by it/can think it's crass.
It's not like women live in constant fear of being raped and you've somehow trivialized women all over's general experience of life. It's not like you would even be trivializing the lives of cancer patients if you compared something annoying to cancer. It's just immature and makes you sound like a 15 y/o boy (saying rape, that is). IMO you're very much bordering on benevolent sexism if you make this into a gender topic Yeah, it's more likely for a woman to be raped in a dangerous place than a man, but the term isn't exactly gender specific and you should have heard at least one prison story.
rape 1 (rp) n. 1. The crime of forcing another person to submit to sex acts, especially sexual intercourse. 2. The act of seizing and carrying off by force; abduction. 3. Abusive or improper treatment; violation: a rape of justice. tr.v. raped, rap·ing, rapes 1. To force (another person) to submit to sex acts, especially sexual intercourse; commit rape on. 2. To seize and carry off by force. 3. To plunder or pillage.
only the first entry in both involves any sexual act. Rape means multiple things. I get that rape victims are probably hyper sensitive about it and that it may be offensive to some people. But personally, i refuse to NOT use it (in my gaming vocab).
There's no reason a castor or some player in a major event should say it. Surely they can think of a more colorful description that won't offend a very vocal minority but when it's just me and my friends in vent and i say "dude, i just fawking rappppped this toss so hard!" I'm going to say it and i'm going to keep saying it. It has always really bothered me when people say "blah blah blah you can't/ shouldn't say X" whether X has been retarded, gay or rape. It's my right to express myself through whatever vocabulary i choose. It's your choice to get offended. No one every has ever said "haha you got raped!" to a rape victim. It's a different context.
On August 15 2011 10:35 Flaccid wrote: I'm going to go ahead and bump this thread because of a good parallel I heard while watching sports (on super serious TV btw) today.
The word molested. I feel that every single argument used against the word rape in lingo can also be applied to the word molested. And yet it's entirely common place to hear a guy on ESPN talking about a receiver getting to the open position unmolested or a guy on TSN talk about a player getting to the net unmolested. Does each time an announcer using this word cause a torrent of altar boys to mail the station? Probably not. So I just want to ask what the real difference is here. Why do we villainize the word rape while the word molest goes unmolested? Food for thought.
The words molest and harass are not necessarily sexual, while the word rape is. To say that hellions are 'harassing' a mineral line or that a dropship escapes a base 'unmolested' are accurate uses of those words, but to say an army rapes another is not. That's my interpretation, at least.
Rape also has non-sexual definitions, I think that it is a synonym of pillage.
EPT
Yeah, it's more likely for a woman to be raped in a dangerous place than a man, but the term isn't exactly gender specific and you should have heard at least one prison story.
