Far Cry 3 and The Rape of Jason Brody

[peruvianskys]

I don't think it's such a big double standard that everyone ITT is talking about. Yes if it were a female protagonist there would be an uproar, but I don't consider that particularly unjustified. Mainly because statistically, rape of females is a waaaay bigger problem than female on male rape. As in, female on male rape is less than 1 percent of all rapes to occur. Even male on male rape occurs far less than male on female.

Not that it makes the act any less terrible when it occurs, but there's really no use pretending female on male rape is an equal societal problem as the reverse.

+1

This whole "Imagine if the genders had been switched!" argument is so silly because it ignores completely the most basic understanding of the social, political, economic, and cultural atmosphere in which the acts occur. Yes, a woman raping a man is bad - very, very bad. But if you don't understand why there's a huge difference between a woman forcing herself on a man and a man forcing himself on a woman, both in the act itself and in its larger implications, then you aren't thinking about it really hard.

Cultural context matters. Relative rate of occurrence matters. Ratios of offense to victimization matter. The power dynamic between the two groups involved matters. Rape is bad without exception, but you can't learn anything meaningful about the larger implications of an act, especially when it is depicted in media, simply by switching genders around and leaving the entire context otherwise unchanged.

 

[Jamous]

It probably went unnoticed because many people do not feel that men can be raped, especially by women. They're wrong and stupid of course, but that is a surprisingly commonly held opinion. That and Jason seems to be perfectly ok with it; though that doesn't really make it less rapey. He's under the effects of drugs and often throughout the game is clearly not in his right mind.

 

[Abomination]

I would like to point out that during the hallucination you climb up or 'straddle' the giant hallucination monster and then stab it or 'penetrate' its eye or 'socket' with your ritual dagger or 'penis'...

Then you wake up and Citra is on top of you wearing only a skirt and your nether regions can not be seen while under it.

It was NOT grinding. You had your dick deep in the crazy. You also had no idea that you were doing it and under the influence of super-crazy drugs.

Textbook rape.

But it's okay because a woman was doing the raping and it was a man being raped. A double whammy double standard. Should the genders have been the ONLY thing reversed then the whole debacle would be front page centre of Fox News and Jezebel for WEEKS.

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

Women are at an inherent disadvantage here, in that they don't need to erect any part of their body in order for sex to happen, whereas a guy needs to have an erection in order to really instigate sex, and that becomes progressively more difficult the drunker you get.

As a general rule: if you're clear headed enough to maintain an erection, you're clear headed enough to be abreast of what's going on.

I know you mean well here, but this is a major misconception regarding male rape.

A man does not need to get an erection to be raped by a woman. This should go without saying; there are forms of rape and sexual assault which do not involve the use of a penis to penetrate a vagina. Furthermore, you can get an erection while unconscious or otherwise unable to consent. Saying that if you were clear-headed enough to get an erection you were obviously conscious of your surroundings is...false. It's not correct; I can get an erection whilst sleeping, and regularly do. It's called morning wood, and it happens to every guy in the world.

 

[Baneat]

Was it a sex-act?

 

[wulf3n]

Here's a question that I hope people answer honestly.

When you first played was "OMG! My characters being Raped" really your first reaction?

 

[Darken12]

Holy shit, I am SO fucking glad I gave this game a pass. Dodged one hell of a bullet. This is absolutely disgusting. It's bad enough that pretty much every male character I play as is implied or outright stated to be straight, and most games shove cleavage in my face without balancing it with some male fanservice, but outright molestation or rape? And portrayed as a "sexy" thing, even? Wow, just wow.

Ugh, absolutely terrible.

 

[Darken12]

4) I feel so strange having to explicitly say that : "Yes, waking up to a sexual act with an attractive woman wearing nothing but tribal clothes is a male fantasy." It's not rape because I honestly can't think of one person that I know who wouldn't want that.

I wouldn't want that. I don't care how attractive the person is, you do not have sex with me if I haven't explicitly consented to it. I can't believe I actually have to say this.

This is the kind of thing that scars a person for life, for fuck's sake.

 

[New Frontiersman]

Okay... you're playing a character in a specific storyline. You have no choice in this until the very end. The question is whether or not Jason, not you, would have consented to sex with Citra had he not been hallucinating. Judging from his reactions, I would say he would have. Upon returning to consciousness he did not revoke consent and on an important sidenote he willingly took the hallucinatory substance. Did she know he would have consented? Hard to prove either way. I think the story would have been very different if she had penetrated him and I think it would have been different had Liza woken up to sex with a man.

Luckily, he wanted to have sex with her so my delicate mind need not think about matters further.

That's not how consent works. An intoxicated person can not give consent, plying someone with drugs then having sex with them is morally and legally rape. What he might have done had he not been hallucinating doesn't matter, he was never given the chance to properly consent beforehand so we don't know what he would have done. Even if he willingly took the drug that doesn't mean he wanted her to have sex with him, we don't know what he wanted.

Frankly those same kinds of excuses are used in the real world as victim blaming tactics.

...Ah! But I see you responded to this before!

1-(1) A person (A) commits an offence if?

(a) he intentionally penetrates the vagina, anus or mouth of another person (B) with his penis,
(b) B does not consent to the penetration, and
(c) A does not reasonably believe that B consents.

(2) Whether a belief is reasonable is to be determined having regard to all the circumstances, including any steps A has taken to ascertain whether B consents.
(3) Sections 75 and 76 apply to an offence under this section.
(4) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable, on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for life.

From http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/section/1

Rape isn't rape when it's female on male from a legal perspective unless it's penetrative. Have we now cleared this up? You're on about sexual assault or trespass of the person. Why is it only rape when it's penetrative? Because you're invading someone else's body unconsented, I assume. That's quite a big deal.

We don't all live in the UK. According to US law:

(a) Rape.? Any person subject to this chapter who commits a sexual act upon another person by?
(1) using unlawful force against that other person;
(2) using force causing or likely to cause death or grievous bodily harm to any person;
(3) threatening or placing that other person in fear that any person will be subjected to death, grievous bodily harm, or kidnapping;
(4) first rendering that other person unconscious; or
(5) administering to that other person by force or threat of force, or without the knowledge or consent of that person, a drug, intoxicant, or other similar substance and thereby substantially impairing the ability of that other person to appraise or control conduct;

Source. [http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/920]
Even if where you come from it's not legally rape, it's still morally rape since it's a sex act he didn't give consent to.

I'm saying he woke up from being sexually assaulted during the middle of it and wasn't phased at all, not one bit, as in Jason isn't going to be pressing charges because he's cool with it.

Rape is one of the most under reported crimes, with only one in three victims reporting the crime to police (Source [http://www.jstor.org/stable/20111915]) that number is likely higher among male victims of rape. Just because Jason doesn't press charges doesn't mean it's not rape.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Holy shit, I am SO fucking glad I gave this game a pass. Dodged one hell of a bullet. This is absolutely disgusting. It's bad enough that pretty much every male character I play as is implied or outright stated to be straight, and most games shove cleavage in my face without balancing it with some male fanservice, but outright molestation or rape? And portrayed as a "sexy" thing, even? Wow, just wow.

Ugh, absolutely terrible.

Tell me, do you refuse to watch any film that shows sexual assault to an established character?

Jason Brody isn't a silent protagonist, he's an established character, everything he does in the game is subversive showing the effect the island is having on him.

It's not tastelessly done.

 

[Jandau]

I don't see how weather or not Jason is OK with it has anything to do with the topic at hand. The fact of the matter is, if the genders were reversed, there would be a shitstorm about it. If it were Jane Brody waking up to sweet sweet lovin' in the arms of a sexy black dude, even if she was "Oh hells yeah!" about it, you'd have people (male and female) all up in arms about how sexist it is, how it's rape even if she's OK with it, how games are misogynistic and so on and so forth. The point is there is a double standard at play here and Far Cry 3 illustrates it quite nicely.

The sex slave is just icing on the cake, really. Imagine that same situation, only with a girl being held prisoner. It would be the top story on Fox News...

 

[Darken12]

Tell me, do you refuse to watch any film that shows sexual assault to an established character?

Yes, if I know about it beforehand, I will make a point to avoid it (unless the sexual assault happens off-screen or is glossed over).

Jason Brody isn't a silent protagonist, he's an established character, everything he does in the game is subversive showing the effect the island is having on him.

It's not tastelessly done.

Honestly, I don't care. I agree that tastelessness makes it worse, but I would rather do without the emotional grinder.

 

[wulf3n]

The point is there is a double standard at play here and Far Cry 3 illustrates it

I disagree. This was written by a man, about a man as such it's basically glorified fan fic. It's why there wasn't a massive shit storm about 50 shades of grey.

That's not how consent works. An intoxicated person can not give consent, plying someone with drugs then having sex with them is morally and legally rape. What he might have done had he not been hallucinating doesn't matter, he was never given the chance to properly consent beforehand so we don't know what he would have done. Even if he willingly took the drug that doesn't mean he wanted her to have sex with him, we don't know what he wanted.

Define Intoxication?

Technically you're intoxicated after a single alcoholic beverage? So does that mean If you had sex with a someone after drinking 1 beer they technically raped you?

 

[Jandau]

The point is there is a double standard at play here and Far Cry 3 illustrates it

I disagree. This was written by a man, about a man as such it's basically glorified fan fic. It's why there wasn't a massive shit storm about 50 shades of grey.

I did not say the double standard was applied by women only. In fact, I specified that both men and women apply it. The fact that a guy wrote it makes no difference.

 

[wulf3n]

The point is there is a double standard at play here and Far Cry 3 illustrates it

I disagree. This was written by a man, about a man as such it's basically glorified fan fic. It's why there wasn't a massive shit storm about 50 shades of grey.

I did not say the double standard was applied by women only. In fact, I specified that both men and women apply it. The fact that a guy wrote it makes no difference.

All I'm saying is there's no outcry because it's written by a man. It's not a statement that men can't/don't get raped, it's not subversive action implying women should dominate men, it's merely a guy writing his fantasy.

It's not a double standard as the same thing happened in 50 shades of grey, and it wasn't a big issue because it was written by a woman. There's elements in 50 shades that can be considered misogynistic and sexist.

I'm not saying it's a good/bad thing, just that it's not a quite a double standard IMO.

 

[Jandau]

The point is there is a double standard at play here and Far Cry 3 illustrates it

I disagree. This was written by a man, about a man as such it's basically glorified fan fic. It's why there wasn't a massive shit storm about 50 shades of grey.

I did not say the double standard was applied by women only. In fact, I specified that both men and women apply it. The fact that a guy wrote it makes no difference.

All I'm saying is there's no outcry because it's written by a man. It's not a statement that men can't/don't get raped, it's not subversive action implying women should dominate men, it's merely a guy writing his fantasy.

It's not a double standard as the same thing happened in 50 shades of grey, and it wasn't a big issue because it was written by a woman. There's elements in 50 shades that can be considered misogynistic and sexist.

I'm not saying it's a good/bad thing, just that it's not a quite a double standard IMO.

I'd say you're giving too much importance to authorship in this case. The people who wrote the whole Lara Croft thing likely didn't mean for it to be misogynistic. In the end, it doesn't matter who wrote it, it matters what it depicts. I don't care if the writer was male or female, it's what is depicted in the final product that matters. And in that case, I'd say there is a double standard.

 

[Festus Moonbear]

This argument that "if the genders were reversed so it was a man date-raping a woman, there'd be an outcry" is sort of self-defeating. Sure, there'd be an outcry. The fact that there wasn't an outcry shows that obviously people don't consider this to be as big of a deal. That's not the fault of the writers of Far Cry 3; it's just conventional morality at work. "Double standards" are neither here nor there. You may as well say when someone on death row gets executed, "If he'd been a ten-year-old, there would have been an outcry!" Yes, but he wasn't. Obviously people are more tolerant of one situation than another, and it seems people aren't too bothered when women rape men. Again, not the fault of videogame writers.

Anyway, as far as the purpose of that scene in the game goes, it seems to me that it was just a way to allow Jason to have sex with the exotic fantasy lady without actually wilfully cheating on his girlfriend. Since I see the game as basically just an extended fantasy Jason is having on the plane ride home from an otherwise uneventful holiday, that seems fair enough. But that's another story.

 

[knight steel]

This argument that "if the genders were reversed so it was a man date-raping a woman, there'd be an outcry" is sort of self-defeating. Sure, there'd be an outcry. The fact that there wasn't an outcry shows that obviously people don't consider this to be as big of a deal. That's not the fault of the writers of Far Cry 3; it's just conventional morality at work. "Double standards" are neither here nor there. You may as well say when someone on death row gets executed, "If he'd been a ten-year-old, there would have been an outcry!" Yes, but he wasn't. Obviously people are more tolerant of one situation than another, and it seems people aren't too bothered when women rape men. Again, not the fault of videogame writers.

Anyway, as far as the purpose of that scene in the game goes, it seems to me that it was just a way to allow Jason to have sex with the exotic fantasy lady without actually wilfully cheating on his girlfriend. Since I see the game as basically just an extended fantasy Jason is having on the plane ride home from an otherwise uneventful holiday, that seems fair enough. But that's another story.

Well it's cruel/wrong/demeaning that people think like that,and if thats what conventional morality is well it can fuck right of (ﾉ °益°)ﾉ 彡 ┻━┻