The comments on that first link, le n, are GREAT. I am not sure why anyone thinks it's their job to decide I don't feel threatened by being deliberately touched by strangers for no reason other than touching itself (and recording and sharing with other strangers), or that hearing the scenario of being raped by five people in the room shouldn't make you feel uncomfortable *or* if you are uncomfortable this is exactly how you should act...

Like, can't you go as far as "I wouldn't react that way, but I see that I'm not every person, not even every reasonable person" and leave it there? It's not like the responses involved lighting babies on fire and drinking their flaming blood. They were societally proportionate, pretty much. Even if they're not yours.

I was scared driving across a mesa in Arizona -- too open! Too exposed!

The Southwest totally freaked me out because it was a completely alien landscape and climate. But it also fascinated me. I'd love to go back sometime.

When I lived in Vancouver, I missed the ocean. I know, there's water everywhere! But the mountains were so dominant. And the Pacific Ocean is no North Atlantic, let me tell you.

ita, I think you missed the point. Everyone who is offended by the suggestion that hecklers should be gang-raped is a butthurt militant feminist. As noted first amendment expert "schnitzengiggles" put it:

Whole lotta bitches pms’ing in here.

As a child, I spent too much time at the beach staring out over the flat flat flat flat ocean, to be scared of big skies.

Why does the shortest distance to equality seem to involve a great deal of raped men?

HOW IS THAT EVEN....AAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!11!

(Thank dog men can be raped now, at least. A couple years ago, they didn't even have that freedom. MRA, not for naught.)

Dude, if you can find them, I would love to see one!

I will look! I may have to resort to actual copying from the original, with all of the glue and such on it. But if it comes to that, I think I'll scan, like a real person-living-in-2012.

Western societal norms about body hair on women drive me crazy. And yet I shave my legs and my pits, because I just don't want to deal with feeling judged if I don't. Bleh.

Me too. Well, I shave my pits partially because I don't want to be judged and partially because I've gotten used to being hairless there. I start to feel sweaty and weird now if I let it go for too long. As far as my legs, I sometimes don't shave for a while in the winter, because I can actually go for weeks wearing wool tights every day. In NC. But I still feel self-conscious, because my skin is super-pale, and my hair is super-dark.

I am going to go against the majority and say that rape can be used for humor, inasmuch as I think ANYTHING can be used for humor. Death, heartbreak, slavery, genocide--anything. However, it also matters how the humor is being used. If we are merely laughing at those hurt, that's different than laughing with them in recognition.

Good one, Scrappy.

As a child, I spent too much time at the beach staring out over the flat flat flat flat ocean, to be scared of big skies.

That's completely different! The ocean is always awesome. Flat land is always weird.

I am going to go against the majority and say that rape can be used for humor, inasmuch as I think ANYTHING can be used for humor.

I keep seeing this kind of comment, but what nobody seems to be able to explain is how "hey, wouldn't it be funny if five guys raped you right now" even remotely counts as a joke.

I concur, Scrappy.

That said, the proper reaction to someone complaining about your rape jokes is not to threaten her with gang rape. There's something wrong with the defensiveness about this, the same way there's something wrong with the way 4chan has gone after Anita Sarkeesian. It's the same damn thing.

In other news, Hollywood Reporter has a longass piece on the impact Katie Holmes' divorce from Tom Cruise will have on the Church of Scientology: [link]