I had intended originally to leave this blog entry for tomorrow, but I found myself unable to hold pen away from paper. This morning, as I was reading my Facebook updates, reading the news and other unimportant things like that, I had seen that one of my favorite bloggers, Dr Nerdlove, had made an update. The reason I love Dr Nerdlove is because his blog offers sound, practical dating and lifestyle advice for geeks and gamers, such as myself. (Edit October 25, 2014: The preceding sentences no longer reflect how I feel about Dr Nerdlove.) Anyway, Dr Nerdlove made a blog about how Mike Krahilik, of Penny Arcade fame, had issued yet another apology for the "dickwolves" incident. The "dickwolves" incident refers to a Penny Arcade strip that Mike and his partner, Jerry Holkins, had written back in 2010. I'll leave a link here: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/8/11/. I leave this link not to promote Penny Arcade, but for you, the reader, to see for yourself the seed that started the ruckus. The apology, however, was not at having made the comic, but at removing merchandise from their store that directly referenced the fictional species. This, understandably, has angered a few people, especially those that believe that rape jokes are cruel and offensive. Mike and Jerry responded by making this comic: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/8/13/. Again, I am not providing the direct link to promote Penny Arcade, but for you to see for yourself. Also, I believe in letting an artist's work be seen as the artist laid it out. A more expanded on response was provided at this blog entry: http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/8/13/.
People got mad. A lot of people got mad. They saw the joke, a man getting raped nightly by the "dickwolves", and got angry. And honestly? I get where they are coming from. Rape jokes are not funny because rape is not funny. Rape is a serious thing. When a person, man or woman, loses his or her body autonomy to an outsider, it leaves scars. Many are the women who do not recover, both physically and psychologically, from rape. Men who suffer from rape are often ignored and ridiculed, left to wallow with the scars, as well as the stigma of not being 'man enough to have prevented it'. It therefore makes sense for people to get offended by a comic that seems to make light of such a horrid thing, all for the sake of a joke.
I am reminded of a bit if tumblr drama as well. There is this blog, rather famous as well as infamous among the My Little Pony fan community, named Ask Princess Molestia. The comic is infamous for portraying the character of Princess Celestia as a sex crazed maniac with no personal space, who likes to sexually harass her subjects every time. It's a comedy blog.
Pictured above: The benevolent ruler of a magical kingdom of talking ponies, Princess Celestia.
Pictured below: Her X rated, fan made alternate counterpart, Princess Molestia
There is in Tumblr, and among some members of the MLP fan community, a movement to be rid of Molestia once and for all, named Down with Molestia. Many are the fans that are outright offended by this blog-comic, mainly for two reasons: first off, because the main character outright rapes her subjects (this is treated like a lark, and many characters are depicted as having grown used to it), and second of all, but no less importantly, this is an X rated take on a franchise aimed at young girls, ages 3-8. The idea that a young child could go onto the internet and easily find this comic is a very real, very legitimate worry for any reasonable parent.
Honestly? I can see where people are coming from when they feel offended by these rape jokes. I too hate when a work takes rape lightly and uses it as a cheap plot device. But you know what else? Sometimes, some rape jokes, I find them to be funny.
This is the part where many feminists will hit either the back button or the close window button. Oh well. But for the few who decided to stay here, let me explain. The rape joke is a serious hot button issue. The best metaphor I can think of is the Fugu dish. The Fugu is a sashimi plate that only a master chef with years of rigorous training is allowed to prepare, because the fish it's made of, the pufferfish, is a very poisonous animal. If a novice would attempt to prepare the fugu, chances are the consumer will be killed by the poison. Likewise, the rape joke is one that requires a deep understanding of what a regular audience can find funny and acceptable versus what would offend them. A woman getting raped by a man? Highly offensive. A man getting raped by another man? For some reason, slightly more acceptable. In jail? Could be funny with the right setup. A man getting raped by an ewok? Very easy to mess up, but workable. An ewok with a lecherous grin on his face who says 'prepare your anus' with a chipmunk's voice to a very confused Darth Vader? That's comedy right there.
But you know what? Sometimes, people miscalculate. What we think is going to be absolutely hilarious may end up offending someone. Let's go back to the dickwolves joke again. If you watch carefully, you'll notice that the joke is NOT that the guy gets raped by wolves made of penises, but that the werewolf sent to rescue the captives has already filled his quota of people he needs to rescue, and therefore doesn't care about the ones he does not need rescue. The joke here is how callous and uncaring the rescuer is to the prisoner's plight, not the plight itself. Would Mike and Jerry have made the joke if they had thought it would have offended them? Because they have done edgy work before, and no one had batted an eye. So why this controversy, this time, over an element of a joke?
Again, let me look at Molestia. Here is a comic that deals with sex, with an eternally horny protagonist, based on a beloved children's cartoon. And not a classic cartoon from yesteryear either, like the Smurfs or Thundercats, but a very recent, still ongoing cartoon aimed at little girls. The great thing about fan works is that it allows people to express their love for the original work and allows them to work out how they imagine it. Fan works include fan films, movies based on an original work, such as the Mega Man movie that is currently online for free. Molestia is a fan work, a joke made by someone to entertain the readers with a highly inappropriate depiction of a character that is canonically as good as a saint. And you know what? That's the joke. This is inappropriate, it's dirty, it's taboo, and it's out in the open. And there's the humor right there.
That's what jokes are for, they are for entertaining. When someone makes a joke, that person seeks to do only one thing: make people laugh. They do not want to offend, they want to make people laugh, to brighten up someone's day with a chuckle.
But I'm of the opinion that intentions mean nothing, and only results have any bearing. If someone is offended, an apology is in order, no question. I am one hundred percent certain that neither the authors of Penny Arcade nor of Molestia intended to offend people who actually have to deal with rape, but the point is, people did feel offended.
I am reminded of something that happened in my home country in December of 2012. A popular show, "Super Xclusivo", hosted by La Comay, a show that can best be summed up as a gossip news program that also focuses on local issues, made a report about a recent murder in my Island. To make a long story short, the program had reported that the victim was hanging around a place known for prostitution, placing special emphasis on the presence of male prostitution and implying that the victim was seeking a homosexual encounter. A boycott followed, and the program was canceled within the month. I defended the boycott then, and still do. Why? Because this was not the first time the program had painted homosexuality in a negative light, nor was it the first time the program had sullied the name of a stranger in the name of ratings, cowardly hiding behind the banner of 'freedom of speech'. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences of your speech. The government may not tell you what you can or can't say, but that does not mean the market has to accept everything you say. Thanks to the boycott, many advertisers pulled from the program, eventually leading to its cancellation. This program was the number one rated program in my country. Its clout could not be underestimated. What does this have to do with what I'm talking about?
Because deep down, that's what the controversies boils down to. Penny Arcade is not some little webcomic on the net, it's an entertainment Juggernaut, a powerful force in the gaming industry that has its own charities and conventions. Molestia is not some random fanfic on the net, it's one of the most famous blogs in the MLP fandom. Both are making jokes that make light of rape, and both have continued to make these jokes, and in Penny Arcade's case actually tried to profit from them. When an audience feels offended, you need to listen to them and stop doing the thing that offends them. But if you continue, then you lose any right you had to defenders.
A lot of people defend Penny Arcade and Molestia, and this is understandable. They not only love the work, but they understand the jokes. They know the dickwolves were not a rape joke, but an element of a joke used to highlight the callousness of the subject of the joke. Then subject was not the victim, but the rescuer. Now, if the element of the dickwolves was needed, that's another subject. To me, they weren't, but hey. Helped underscore what a dick the rescuer was. They also know that, when it comes down to it, Molestia is all fun and games, and no intent to offend is meant. They see the humor in a super horny monarch that is constantly trying to have sex with her subjects. To them, the offense is in seeing other people who do not understand the joke not only accuse these works of promoting rape culture, but also call for these works to be boycotted and, in the case of Molestia, deleted permanently. A lot of people in my country accused the people behind the boycott and their supporters to be promoters of censorship. To them, the boycott was disproportionate to the offense felt by the people who thought the show had gone too far.
And this is where I need to say that I know from first hand experience what it feels like to have your art accused of offense when it was not meant to be taken as such. Three years ago I had written a fanfic, called Power Rangers: Public Enemies. I had written the fanfic because I had felt at the time nothing but anger at the world, anger at the apathy that I was seeing around me. I wrote a fanfic about the Power Rangers being treated like garbage, persecuted by a government that was using them as scapegoats for the chaos that was caused by a crashed economy. Looking back at it, I know it's a flawed piece, and there was plenty of room for improvement, but I was rightly proud of finishing what, for all intents and purposes, was a fan made novel. However, someone read my work and was reduced to tears by how horrified she felt reading it. She felt I had gone too far, that I had written a fanfic no better than the gratuitous torture porn known as Agony in Pink. I wrote the story to express my anger, but someone felt offended by the amount of violence that was present. I wanted to apologize to that person, and also to defend my work, but she did not accept personal correspondence, so I was unable to.
It hurts on a personal level to make something with one intent and have people call you out and saying they felt offended by something you never intended to include. I can imagine that Mike and Jerry felt that way when they were called out on being rape supporters for writing the dickwolves. And I can also imagine the writer of Molestia feeling that way for being called a propagator of rape culture, when all he/she wanted to do was make a few comics about a sexually uninhibited winged unicorn who is the ruler of a magical kingdom of talking ponies. And in a way, I can understand why they would hold back their apologies. When you insult someone's art, you insult them personally, whether you think so or not, because we leave a piece of ourselves in everything we create. This is why I can totally understand Mike and Jerry feeling offended by being called rape supporters for a one off joke.
But the thing is, people are not only offended by the one off joke, people are offended by the perceived callousness of Mike and Jerry towards the issue. They are offended because neither has ever apologized for offending anyone with the joke, choosing instead to justify the comic and, one month later, try to profit from the joke by making dickwolves t-shirts. I tried apologizing for making that reader cry, Mike and Jerry did not. La Comay did not care about the people "she" offended (La Comay was a puppet), only that people were mad and that "she" needed them to calm down. This apathy towards the feelings of others is highly insulting. When Doug Walker made an autism joke and people got offended by it, he removed it, apologized, and moved on. When Lindsay Ellis made a rap about rape and people got offended, she removed it, apologized, and moved on. Doug, Lindsay, La Comay, Mike and Jerry have made jokes and comments that offended people. All five had the same intentions, to entertain. But only Doug and Lindsay have apologized. In La Comay's case, her show got canceled with no hope of revival.
Yes, sometimes people get overly sensitive towards a work. There are crazies out there that need to relax and take a pill. We as creators can not control how people view our art, and we need to prepare for that. We need to remember that an artist has the right to defend his/her work. But we must also be ready to be humble and apologize for when we hurt someone with our work, especially if we never intended to do such a thing. Sometimes it's better to just admit a mistake than to try and defend it.
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