Apologies to any Japanese person out htere who thinks rape isn’t funny at all… but my friend asked the question, and apparently wants me to do some research on it. Since I have no idea where to do that kind of thing, I thought I’d start here.
Apparently, there’s a bunch of Japanese stuff focused on rape, but as a funny thing… people getting raped can be taken as comedy there. Japan has some really crazy stuff. The Japanese can just accept it as something funny in a humorous context, where a lot of other places would just be offended. I don’t think they’d see a scene like that in a serious movie and start laughing, though.
We have no idea why they’d think it was funny, so even though I didn’t really want to do any serious research on the topic (I even told him I didn’t seriously want to know, but he said to go do some research and tell him what I came up with)… I present the question to you. Why would they think it was funny? Explain the cultural differences if you can, please. Thanks!
Rape is also widely considered funny in the U.S., but only if it occurs in prison between two males. It’s a standard joke in sitcoms and movies. “Better not drop the soap! Har har.” :rolleyes:
About the prison rape thing – I asked a boyfriend of mine one time about that, and he said that guys cracked jokes about it to make it non-threatening by turning the rape into something silly or humorous. “It’s scary and exciting,” he said, which I had to admit is a pretty potent combination.
Bad things have always been the subject of humor for many reasons, but it is a way of dealing with what we fear. We joke about death, injury, ridicule’, sex and other things that would make us uncomfortable in a serious context. I think the question should be why Americans can laugh at death, murder, etc and not laugh at unPC jokes. And the answer is right there: Political Correctness. It seems it has not arrived in Japan yet.
Strange question F_X but I’m always interested in finding out about other cultures…
I found this info
(source: http://www.isei.or.jp/books/75/Front.html under sytems)
“Nor are there many people who consider the basic unit of society to lie in action or choice based on the will, judgment, or responsibility of the autonomous individual. It is the formalized organization, or system, that in Japan is revered as the standard framework for behavior.”
I would think that they could see it as funny in a clearly (assumption) humorous context because they know it is unacceptable otherwise. They know what is accepted in society and since rape is unacceptable it is not threatening to see it in comedy.
Where as, in America we believe more in the individual’s right to set their own values and therefore we could be influenced by things we see other individuals doing. Think of the common somewhat-accepted idea that because of violent movies or music someone is driven to commit a crime.
I also agree with sailor as why it would even be a subject matter. Even though it is not accepted by society it still happens, unfortunately.
A google search suggests that rape jokes aren’t just a Japanese phenomenon, but are widespread in the west. I don’t think I should post any links here to actual jokes, but here is a Slate article on sick humor which mentions them.
And two links to sites about violence against women. The second warns men “Do not listen to or tell rape jokes. They help perpetuate attitudes that make acceptance and tolerance of rape easier.”
People have to acknowlege that something can be offensive and humorous. A joke can be racist or sexist and funny. Here in the US, most people avoid jokes about rape because they offend people. In Japan, which is a less sexually egalitarian society, apparently the offense doesn’t outweigh the humor.
To clarify: the joking isn’t about rape as in, look out, don’t drop the soap or it could happen to you! The humor is it’s about raping, like whee, look what he’s doing.
That said, I don’t know that the average Japanese person finds this stuff funny - it’s just that such jokes are accepted. I don’t think there is a why. In the Japanese cultural crap shoot, this one came out a winner. I’m sure you could find equally disturbing conventions in any other society.
Call me morbid, but I can see how death can be funny. There are a lot of stupid or ironic ways that people meet their end. But I can’t really think of any way that rape could even approach comedy. I mean, people don’t usually get raped because they did something so stupid it’s funny.
Anyway, death can happen in plenty of ways that don’t involve evil or cruelty, which have a way of making things not funny. Rape doesn’t just happen, though.
My friend Ichi and I have had long discussions about this. He lived in japan much of his life, and his take was that this phenomenon comes about because of how wildly rigid societal rules are in Japan. As he puts it “The rules of social behavior there aren’t guidelines, your on a f#@king monorail”.
Don’t make eye contact for any length of time, and don’t make sudden moves or wild gestures when talking. Ladies, when you laugh cover your mouth with your hand. When bowing to somebody of superior social status, bow lower than them. Don’t make (even flattering) comments on a member of the opposite sex’s appearance. Don’t ever blow your nose in public. Don’t point at people. Don’t display tattoos, etc.
Don’t you think that’d drive you crazy after awile?
Thus, this weird Japanese obsession with ultra-violent comic books and animation, rape-oriented video games (called ‘hentai’), hyper sexualized pre-teen schoolgirls, and, er, * other things* (for Gods sake DON’T click that link) which we’d consider devient are generally viewed in Japan as an unshameful way of getting a thrill from taboo subjects without anybody getting hurt. Nobody would really ever consider doing any of those things, and they don’t – crime in Japan is really, really low.
Does anyone have statistics for the numbers of rapes in Japan compared to North America, for example? Perhaps rape jokes are more common in Japan because the actual occurrence of rapes is significantly more/less than countries where such jokes are taboo.
Inky-, if you don’t want people to click on the link, then don’t post the link. I don’t believe we really need a link to pictures of shitting figurines here, so I have deleted it.
I think jokes become offensive when they are about things which you would consider could happen to you. Jokes about death probably do not go down well in camp X-ray but would be funny in a context where no one has had someone die and where no one considers there is any risk of dying.
Jokes cease to be funny when we feel insecure about the subject. Someone who feels secure and comfortable with his religion or political beliefs would find a joke about them funny which a more insecure person would not. We see that in this board all the time.
So, if you are a woman living in a society where you believe rape is at all possible for you or those close to you, then you wil not appreciate the jokes about rape but if you live in a society where rape is considered something that is far removed from you in real life, then you can laugh about it.
I didn’t say it’s more prevalent, I just pointed out that it’s not purely a Japanese thing (which the OP seems to suggest it is). If I want to prove something isn’t confined to Japan, doing a search for websites outside of Japan would seem the sensible thing to do, wouldn’t it?