My body is just here to be played with

We are living in a time where sexual abuse is normalized and I don’t know how to feel about it. Last week it was another Hell Pizza scandal, this week Todd Akin’s comments about ‘legitimate rape’ have stirred up a deluge of commentary about sexual behavior, particularly how rape is justified or excused in our culture. Personally, I’m not going to be as clued up or studied as a lot of the other people who are talking about this, but there is something that I want to touch on.

I’ll also say that I’m not going to talk about rape here. Rape is a topic that is overwhelmed with complicated issues that are being addressed by others in a far better way than I could at the moment. I will say, to quote Obama that rape is rape and rape is wrong.

But what about the other stuff? The stuff that happens in clubs and at parties and that you just accept because that’s just what happens.The bum grabbing, the ass slapping, the groping, the sexually derogatory diatribes. That’s just normal, right?

Well, no. It’s sexual assault.

But hey, who is going to complain about that? Bitches right?

‘Yeah, it’s okay mate, we’re in a club and clubs are for sex and my body is here to be played with.’

We may be sexually liberated but by playing into the game of being modern and easy going are we making ourselves vulnerable in a way we never have before?

And for the guys, how are they supposed to know that some types of behavior just isn’t okay if no one ever tells them? For guys, the tea bagging, dick slapping, general mutual molestation, it’s all in the name of being ‘bros,’ right?

But even further, is this sort of thing even morally reprehensible and upsetting behavior anymore? Or do we just laugh? Laugh, accept it and repeat the behavior and the acceptance, over and over.

I’ll be honest, I can’t claim any moral superiority here. I’ve used the word rape inappropriately, laughed at entirely inappropriate jokes, I’m sure that most of us have.

But my question, when horribly absurd things like Todd Akin’s comments do come out, or when people are rewarded with free pizza for something that is actually a crime. Well, when does the laughter stop? And how far do things have to go before as a society we unquestioningly accept, that fuck, actually that is wrong?