Certainly, you’ve seen this?:

 

 

Reported on by basically the entire Internet, including the LAist, this fool… #smh

I honestly didn’t know how to react to this image, but then I realized — this person is not the only individual culpable in the wearing of this shirt. In fact, the presence of this shirt at the first weekend of Coachella 2015 is evidence of so much more going on in wider culture, history, and the world we currently live in.

I commented on this at SheKows.com (4/14/15 here):

It’s easy to simplify a shirt reading “Eat, Sleep, Rape, Repeat” as one individual’s wildly inappropriate choice in a sea of creative expression, community, and fun (or rampant consumerism, excess, and cultural posturing, depending on where you get your news). Except that when you stop to think about it, the number of choices and decisions that went into publicly displaying that shirt are astounding – from concept and design, to production, to making it available in the marketplace, to the decision to purchase and wear it. This shirt is not *just* evidence of one person’s poor choice, but of legions of others’ poor choices, before and including his, all of which are evidence of the pervasiveness of rape culture in contemporary US society.

It could be that the shirt was an error (a typo or a misprint?) or some kind of attempted joke/cultural commentary terrifically misfired. But in a world were all we can do is estimate the actual number of sexual assaults that occur all too frequently in every corner of our society, an instance like this draws attention to the deeper social structures and historical patterns that still exist just beneath the surface.

(This incidentally is the full comment I provided SheKnows, at their request. The quote was edited in their post, which is why I always prefer to do written interviews.)

At the time of writing this post, including this comment for SheKnows, I have done four (4!) interviews about this T-shirt fool and the wider issue of rape culture. And as I sit here, I find myself reminded of Christy Mack and the flurry of interview requests I fielded because something awful happened to a prominent woman. I feel really ambivalent about this…

Something shitty happens, so people want to know about it. I’m more than willing to speak out about issues and I’m so grateful to live in a world where, more and more, media are interested in informed standpoints (vs reactionary off-spouting), but I only hope that this after the fact engagement leads to enhanced awareness and social change.

 

Interviews I did about THAT shirt and the pervasiveness of rape culture in the US:

SheKnows quotes (posted 4/14/15 here)

Ravishly quotes (posted 4/16/15 here)

Crave interview (posted 4/16/15 here)

  • Inquisitr (drawn from Crave interview, posted 4/18/15 here)

Huffington Post interview (posted 4/16/15 here)

RockConfidential interview (posted 4/24/15 here)

* * *

Got a sociology question? Need some social justice informed life advice? Contact Dr. Chauntelle right here.

One thought on “One fool, a toxic culture, or both?”

Comments are closed.