Poll: Poll: is the word "rape" okay to use?

[Flamezdudes]

The word actually really pisses off one of my friends for some reason, he doesn't like people saying it.

However, i'm completely fine with the word. (I'm not fine with the action)

 

[Fetzenfisch]

Never heard it in that context, and its idiotic . Owned is idiotic too, but well we got used to it.
Its not that i am a huge fan of Pol.Corr. but thats really dumb here.

 

[Iron Mal]

Oh such wicked and foul words used by such naughty and mischevious children! Hark!

Think of thine children!

The severity and meaning of words changes over time (there was a time when calling someone naughty was a somewhat serious accusation to make, now it's usually applied to children), 'gay' has gone from meaning 'happy' or 'joyful' to 'homosexual' to 'bad' or 'undesirable'.

Words change overtime, it's how the English language got to where it is, it's not some purge or crusade against rape victims.

 

[SuperNashwan]

To the OP

Having worked in heavy engineering backgrounds, I guess its a case of certain types of communication come up in certain places, and not others. Those kids that are using the word all the time on XBox live arent going to be sitting at the dinner table with their gran and saying "geez gran, you really raped that chocolate muffin. F*ckin A!", they will tend to say it around their friends and fellow combatants. Its just peer-specific language. So in the same way as I know I will go to work and hear ten times as much use of the F word in one day than if I was at my mum's for tea, so online I expect people to use certain language.

There will always be people you perceive as coarse or crass.

 

[Iron Mal]

Sorry for the double post but I had to respond to this.

It's a word.

A word.

God damn.

So you would openly go around spewing out words such as:

"I raped you!"
"******!"
"N*****!"

And other such words? No. You would never say such a word mainly because these words can be devastating to the wrong people. Not only could you be arrested for saying "rape" and having others misunderstand it, you could also lose your job, be thought of your peers as an asshole, never get a girlfriend/boyfriend and other such problems will continue to occur.

Stop trying to be "cool" and grow up.

Welcome to the real adult world where people don't care about your feelings and people can say words like 'fuck' 'shit' '****' and worse as much as they like (people will say things you don't like, no-one is obliged tobe polite to you if they don't want to be). For starters, I think that just arresting someone for saying 'rape' is idiotic (and sounds made up, along with the rest of your list there).

Someone saying the word rape (in any context) does not equal rape (the actual act would result in numerous problemsdogging you and for good reason, rape is a horrible thing). You're trying to make it sound like some major taboo or curse that only idiots and children lower themselves to.

I think you might to do a bit of growing up yourself here, my friend. It is just a word, if you're offended by what I say then I'm sorry I offend you but I'm not sorry for what I said.

I probably wouldn't use it in the company of actual rape victims. Everyone who is not a former rape victim and still takes offense is a hypersensitive PC jerkoff.

Not really. Us who actually use manners and such things on the internet (OMG SHOCKING I KNOW!) realize that just because you have "Anonymity" doesn't excuse you to go and act like an asshole to everyone on the internet. And also, nowadays there are some wonderful new advancements that could get you into all the trouble I had listed above. Just look at all the people who say or do certain things on Facebook (btw, it doesn't only happen on FB).


TL;DR - Manners people, use them.

Sadly, anomymity is the perfect excuse for people to be an arsehole on the internet (it dehumanises themselves and those they speak to which in turns mean they feel less empathy for them), as a result, going onto the internet expects you to be thick skinned enough to accept that there are going to be some outragously offensive said and done by people online. Not much can be done to change this so rather than getting outraged, how about you try learning to cope?

If you can't tolerate a lack of manners and people saying naughty and rude things that might hurt people's feelings then I think you may be in the wrong place, kid.

 

[Erana]

Society should grow up and stop misusing the term, "Rape."
I don't care that it would very mildly inconvenience a few people while they have to learn to substitute "Rape" with some other hot word-of-the-day.
Several people I really, truely love have been abused in this way, and just bringing up the topic around them visibly changes their demeanor.
Even being held by someone you know who wants you in that way so badly, even if they care for you, and even if they would never actually go through with it...
Its so absolutely violating.
I can't even begin to fathom how terrible rape is.

No reason for using this word as a slang term is justified for what the mere mention of it can do to some people. Its sick, and heartless, and the only people who should even begin to consider doing it are people who want to make it clear that they're malicious assholes.

But Nooooo, its just a slang term, and I'm being such a drag for hoping that people would eschew flaunting around some of the most terrible moments in many peoples' lives because they feel it properly describes how they so expertly pressed a few buttons on a keyboard or controller.

 

[Valksy]

Yes, the casual use of that word bothers me and I shall always associate it with stupid little children who have no experience of the world. I don't care if someone is 40, if they think that "rape" is to be used in a casual manner they are a mental child. I would invite them to speak to their mother, their sister, their wife and ask them if they think that rape is anything other than a horrific crime.

Having spent a lot of years hanging out and spending time with a lot of women I am unpleasantly aware of how common sexual violence is (I couldn't comment regarding men, but that is due to my friendship groups really), I have seen the aftermath of rape with my own eyes and seen its victims and when people say "LOL I raped you" over something like Vent or Xbox live I want to stamp on their balls to stop them from procreating and spreading the stupid.

 

[random_bars]

Can someone tell me why the third guy to reply was put on probation for his post? All it says is 'yes'. Surely the whole point of this topic in the first place is to get different peoples' views on this question, rather than to silence people with one opinion?

 

[xmbts]

I try not to mind it too much, but it does bother me, I usually tell my friends to stop saying that stuff then they wonder if I've had some horrible traumatic experience and its all just weird.

 

[Valksy]

Can someone tell me why the third guy to reply was put on probation for his post? All it says is 'yes'. Surely the whole point of this topic in the first place is to get different peoples' views on this question, rather than to silence people with one opinion?

People are expected to contribute to a discussion, very simple. Imagine having a conversation IRL with someone who only ever answered "yes" or "no".

 

[Baldry]

I don't like it being used lightly but otherwise yes, yes it is okay.

 

[Baby Tea]

It didn't used to bother me, but recently I've become more and more uncomfortable with people using the word "rape" to describe an epic win. I was originally of the opinion that words shouldn't be harmful, but in truth a simple word can cause flashbacks to painful events, such as the experience of rape. So my question is, should we really be using this word in such a casual manner?

You know, I used to use that word all the time for describe a serious ass-kicking in games.
Then I used it in front of my brother, who is an EMT (Paramedic).
He looked at me, dead serious, and asked: "Have you ever seen a rape victim after they've been raped?"
"No." I simply replied.
"You wouldn't use that word if you had."

Now, My brother will often joke about dark situations in his line of work. It helps him stay a bit distant from it, because if you don't you'll lose your taste for the job after you pull your 10th burned-to-death child from a car, or watch the next pregnant mother drown in her own blood. It's not an easy job, and not everyone could do it.

So when he looked at me with that expression of dead-pan seriousness, and said, so matter of factly, that I had absolutely zero idea of what I was talking about, I immediately felt like a complete idiot.

I haven't used the word like that since.

Do I think the word should be banned or stopped? No.
But people who honestly use it like that are completely ignorant about rape. I certainly was. Heck, I still couldn't even fathom what such a horrific act would be like (And frankly, I don't want to think about it). I wouldn't stop anyone from trying to use the word, but if you do use it in that context: You sound like an ignorant douche.

 

[Communist partisan]

Use it if you want I do and I don't care if somebody gets distubed beacose I usally yust tell them that my daisy roots would want to meet their boat race if they complain on me.

 

[Admiral Stukov]

No.
Back when I lived with my old room mate on my previous year at university, we used to have competitions of making the other as wierd out as possible, after six months of that I'm not offended by anything, and disgusted of only a very few things.

Before that... no I don't think so, I've always been hard to offend.

 

[alandavidson]

Rape is not a word that should be used lightly. It is an act that effects people every day and hurts them every day. You don't ever truly get over it, and people need to be considerate of others while speaking. It's not just a word that you can throw around because of what is attached to it. Anyone who says that rape victims should just "get over it" need to understand just how horrible it is.

So my answer is no.

 

[Mikeyfell]

I know how you feel man
there are words that get under my skin too
Potato, Mug, Jog, Yogurt, most compound words, any thing that was said on fox news, container, there are so many words that just rub me up the wrong way.
in fact I'm only comfortable around the words in the first 2 lines of this comment

 

[Savagezion]

Don't worry, gaming slang will soon morph the word rape into something beyond comprehension through leet speak to the average person. Take pwn for example, obviously a typo but no one says you got "owned" anymore. Everyone even feels the need to pronounce the "p" as in "you got 'poned'" It is completely retarded but there it is. (Man, that one still annoys me.)

Soon someone will typo "taped" or some other nonsense and this problem will go away. Because it is mandatory to speak like a retard in gaming sessions for alot of people.

Hmm, perhaps I should also not use the word retard. Someone may read this who has a retarded family member or friend. Oh crap, someone may be an orphan and have no family or friends maybe I should avoid those words too. I am sure you see where I am going with this. (Dang it, I just insulted the blind! XD)

That said, I do believe that one should keep aware of the content spewing out of their mouth. However, I think the reasons I believe this are different than the intentions of this thread. I think the word "rape" by itself is actually the least of the gaming communities problems concerning social inadequacies. When we can manage to keep genitals and sexual references out of the converstaion for 10 mins on average, we can fine tune these small problems. But at the present we can't even keep the mention of these things out of our gamertags.

 

[Savagezion]

Can someone tell me why the third guy to reply was put on probation for his post? All it says is 'yes'. Surely the whole point of this topic in the first place is to get different peoples' views on this question, rather than to silence people with one opinion?

Low content post. He failed to explain his view or really contribute much to the thread. Low content posts are frowned upon here pretty heavily. Perhaps it would have been overlooked if the OP replied "OK, just checking. Mods please close my thread." Hehe. I doubt it though.