I am not making the opposite claim, only expressing doubt. There is a folk narrative that US society was less enlightened in the past, and I agree that the notion that instances of rape jokes have declined does fit into this narrative. But this is hardly an “empirical approach to feminism.” For instance it’s another common folk narrative that US culture has degraded into filth since the 1960s, accordingly one might expect instances of rape jokes to have increased.
I think each of these stories is equally plausible at an intuitive level, though I expect the first to appeal to people with different political opinions than the second. I’d be interested in finding out whether rape jokes have increased or decreased in frequency, at least after making this claim more precise. But you don’t seem to claiming you know how to do this, only that you find the answer somehow obvious.
I see what you mean. It is an article of faith in certain feminist websites. Given the frequency of the generalized assertion, I assumed that there was data supporting it, but web-searching leaves me empty handed.
The best I could come up with was the TVTropes page “Rape as Comedy.” There’s no particular reason to think the lists there are complete, and they certainly aren’t sorted by time. I assume that the media from the 1970s listed in the “Rape Culture” page on wikipedia have contemporary examples, but I don’t have access to them.
Or we could just ask someone old enough to remember the 1950s-1970s.
Edit: And during totally random web browsing, I ran across this story. The incident in question is from 1998, so it probably cuts slightly against my factual assertion. On the other hand, the mnemonic might have been fairly old.
I am not making the opposite claim, only expressing doubt. There is a folk narrative that US society was less enlightened in the past, and I agree that the notion that instances of rape jokes have declined does fit into this narrative. But this is hardly an “empirical approach to feminism.” For instance it’s another common folk narrative that US culture has degraded into filth since the 1960s, accordingly one might expect instances of rape jokes to have increased.
I think each of these stories is equally plausible at an intuitive level, though I expect the first to appeal to people with different political opinions than the second. I’d be interested in finding out whether rape jokes have increased or decreased in frequency, at least after making this claim more precise. But you don’t seem to claiming you know how to do this, only that you find the answer somehow obvious.
I see what you mean. It is an article of faith in certain feminist websites. Given the frequency of the generalized assertion, I assumed that there was data supporting it, but web-searching leaves me empty handed.
The best I could come up with was the TVTropes page “Rape as Comedy.” There’s no particular reason to think the lists there are complete, and they certainly aren’t sorted by time. I assume that the media from the 1970s listed in the “Rape Culture” page on wikipedia have contemporary examples, but I don’t have access to them.
Or we could just ask someone old enough to remember the 1950s-1970s.
Edit: And during totally random web browsing, I ran across this story. The incident in question is from 1998, so it probably cuts slightly against my factual assertion. On the other hand, the mnemonic might have been fairly old.