post 7

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.