Um…hi, I think ur doin it wrong…
[Extreme trigger warning: The following video makes a joke out of child rape and incest]
If you can not watch this video for whatever reason, Lauredhel has a transcript. I am not a rape/incest survivor, and I had to switch to the transcript just a few seconds in.
Like Cara, who gets the h/t on this, said, what disturbs me the most is the portrayal of the victim. I also think that were I a survivor this would only serve to enrage me. I know what it is like to survive abuse and have people try to convince you that it either didn’t happen or that you should get over it, or try to act as if it wasn’t that bad to begin w/, and I can only begin to imagine that it is so much worse if you were a young child were raped by a family member.
If an emotional and triggering response is what the goal was w/ this Australian advert, then I think they did it. I think if they are trying to bring serious attention to a serious issue then a flippant and supposedly ironic advert like this is so not the way to go. It made me sick to my stomach just read it. I have a hard time believing that anyone who is an actual adult survivor of childhood rape and incest had anything to do w/ this. It feels callous and not well thought through.
I am also interested in thoughts on this. As someone who is not a rape and incest survivor I don’t feel I can fully judge this video…but I really have to go w/ my gut and say that this isn’t really as effective as they think it will be.
At first I thought this was a tv show or something but I see its for an abuse help line. I suppose they were trying to depict how how a family in which one member incestually rapes another will try to play off the rape as either it didn’t happen or that “its no big deal”. The rapist just casually carrying on and joking about the rape. The family just laughing along with the rapist represeting how when the victim speaks up they will often believe the abuser since the abuser is usually an adult and the victim is often a young child. Thus leaving the victim, trapped in a corner with no one to turn to for help, feels like the only thing they can do is play along with it.
Hitting someone with the hard truth is not always a good thing. I guess they figured that since there are victims out there who do act like the woman in the ad (joking and playing around about it becuase they feel its their only option) and this organization is trying to relate to said victims. Not trying to defend the ad. Just trying to see what the hell kind of angle they were trying to come from.
Mind you I wasn’t in on the thought process of the ad so I don’t know for sure what their intent was and also am not a survivor of child abuse (in any form) so I doubt I can see just how callous this is.
Danny: I think the “If only….” statement undermines the potential for your reading of the advertisement. The ad agency isn’t presenting the situation as “how things are”, they seem to be presenting it as something to be desired, an ideal outcome. The org’s description of the ad on their Youtube channel reinforces this:
“A TVC to raise awareness of the long-lasting effects of childhood abuse. Agency Whybin\TBWA Sydney shows that whilst it would be nice if people could just joke and be at ease about the terrible things that have happened to them, unfortunately they can’t.”
Hi lauredhel, and welcome! Thanks for responding to Danny. W/ my new time change and such I am having a rough time responding to comments in the timely manner that I usually like to. You are right.
Danny, good to see you again. I agree w/ lauredhel, but I think I can see how you interpret it that way. They are trying to push this as a “perfect world” scenario, and I just feel uncomfortable w/ that, especially w/ the way they portray the victim as playing along, and almost having enjoyed her abuse. That is something I hear a lot when discussing childhood rape is that b/c there is sometimes a physical reaction to being raped it is assumed that the victim must have enjoyed it on some level. I also strongly object to the advert’s use of “sex” when clearly they mean rape, since everyone here knows that it is absolutely impossible to have sex w/ a minor. We call that rape.
Cara at the Curvature gave it a great takedown, I think.
Since I am not a rape survivor I can’t speak to what kind of a world we should be pushing for, but this feels too close to aligning w/ today’s rape culture for it to be comfy.
I had another thought along that line, but it just escaped me. :(