If "fucked" was substituted for "raped", would you still be offended? What about "violated"? "shat on"? "murdered"?
I'm trying to determine whether it's the content of the metaphor, the language, or something else which is offensive. (FWIW, my friends use "raped" a lot, and I sense that some are offended by it, so I'm trying to distinguish why.)
Feel free to say "fuck", "shit", etc. for all I care.
*The grammatically general "you".Personally, I think the suggestion that using words in alternative contexts somehow diminishes their power in a negative way to be very silly. Maybe I'm wrong though, and Disney should stop making pirate movies because victims of piracy might be watching.
"Rape" isn't irksome because of its power, but its meaning; if there were or are synonyms, they would be just as bad (assuming they weren't euphemistic to the point of complete obfuscation).
To see American news channels use terms like the "F-word", "N-word", "C-word", etc., when they are reporting on what someone said, it becomes farcical. It reminds me of the Fry and Laurie sketch in a courtroom where Hugh Laurie quotes a heated exchange, but has to replace all the profanities with words that aren't offensive to the court, which obviously distorts the picture and thereby completely destroys the purpose of it.
They already say "rape" outright when reporting on it - which they should - because that's more of a quantitative word. The word "rape" shouldn't be banned or anything like that, but people shouldn't become oblivious to the meaning and ramifications of the word.
Actually, my mom was murdered gruesomely. I have better things to do than getting offended too much over people's word choices when I know that they're just venting and not actually trying to insult me personally.
That said, there's plenty of awkwardness when people assume that a person your age should have living parents and you always end up having to explain what happened when you get to know new people.
I come from a country with perhaps the most open mind on free speech, so there probably isn't going to be anything that gets under my skin - I probably use profanity too much as a result.
I only see "rape" on the internet and don't know how prevalent it is in real-life vernacular in English-speaking countries, but it's something I'm glad I don't see that much (outside of StarCraft 2 discussions).
I don't really know that many contexts a vernacular "murder" is used in, so I don't know about that.
Regardless, the victim isn't going to be able to take any offence.
I don't dislike it because its impolite, or because its offensive to others.
Rather, its because it conjures up an image in my mind that is too strong for the context it is used. Lost a game of foosball? You were "raped". Getting a raw deal from your ISP? You were "raped".
Unlike murder, 'rape' is more commonly used non-euphemistically. At least at my university, everytime you would go to the bathroom you'd see an anti-rape poster. When you got back from summer vacation, you'd be handed a 'rape whistle'. We also had patrols specifically to prevent 'rape'--not mugging, not murder, but rape.
Because of that when someone says "raped" I think of the actual graphic act. However the term 'murdered' in my mind is far disassociated from the actual act.
Question, and perhaps unrelated, why do highschool football teams have pep-talks where the coach tells them to "murder" the other team. Why aren't they extorted to "rape" the other team instead?