Savanna Wingard
Money and Ucker
WMS 2000-92
17
April 2015
For this blog, find your
own articles/videos/etc. using social media/the internet that discuss topics
from Chapter 10 and/or Chapter 11. Bring in articles from those chapters to
help support points you are discussing in the articles you found yourself. You
must discuss at least three main points (that relate to the class) from the
article/video/other media that you found.
A week or so ago, I came across a video shared by one of
my friends on her Facebook news feed. It’s by feminist YouTuber and actress
Anna Akana. The main video that I would like to talk about is called, “How to
Not Get Raped.” This is one of her satirical videos in which she starts off by
giving you over the top examples of how to not get raped. At the beginning of
the video, she sarcastically says that she is making the video to “help women
everywhere not get raped; because it’s totally our responsibility.” She says
this to draw focus to the fact that society often puts the blame on the victim,
which has been discussed in weekly journals and blogs, and in videos and the textbook.
There is a scenario in which she shoots a guy, but please remember that this
video is satirical in nature and is not in any way saying that you should shoot
someone that knocks on your door. This reinforces an idea stated throughout
various parts of this class: that society expects women to do all these
over-the-top things so they so not get raped. After the scenarios that Anna
presents, she discusses her point for making the video; which is how absolutely
stupid it is that women have to be paranoid about getting raped. As she states
in the video, women are conditioned throughout their whole lives by their
families and by society to not get raped. Like Anna, I was put into martial
arts classes when I was young to learn self-defense; and my grandmother still
gives me knives and pepper spray and most recently, a stun gun. When I was a
kid, my grandmother would tell me stories of how kids are kidnapped all of the
time, and how to not get kidnapped and sold into sex slavery. I am still
paranoid to this day, even though I am not as paranoid as I once was. To give
you an idea of how paranoid I was, my younger brother and I used to run and
hide from the ice cream truck and any other car that came down the street (my
grandma told my brother similar things that she told me, but not to the
extent). There is also a part at the end, where Anna briefly mentions victim
shaming. Society tends to blame the victim for his or her own rape; whether it
was the clothes they were wearing, because they were on a date, or simply
because “they were asking for it.” No one asks to get raped…
Anna
Akana’s video reminds me of a couple of things from Chapter 10. The first thing
is the story at the beginning of the chapter when the business woman went on a
date with a man who got very pushy and beat her after she left the restaurant.
In the video, Anna briefly mentions that some men feel entitled to sex because
they were on a date. Fortunately, in this story, the woman did not get raped;
but the man felt that he was entitled to her and expected her to be submissive.
When she wasn’t, he found her information and beat her. The second is the
billboard sign near the story that says, “How do you stop a 30 year-old from
beating his wife? Talk to him when he’s 12.” The billboard and Anna Akana have
a point. Instead of telling women how to not get raped, society should be
telling boys and girls that rape isn’t even an option.
Akana, Anna. "How to Not Get Raped." YouTube. 6 April 2015. Web. 17 April 2015.