Fuck you too, Jody Hill

[exsequar]

I was somehow unaware of this discussion currently going on, but esorlehcar linked the following post and I think you all need to read it:

Observe & Report: On Real Rape

Apparently (and these things still manage to shock me) this movie (Observe & Report, Jody Hill's new movie starring Seth Rogan and Anna Faris) contains a scene in which Rogan's character has sex with Faris's while she is drugged out of her mind and unconscious. It is supposed to be funny. She wakes up for a bleary moment and tells him not to stop - so he doesn't. This is the punchline.

Actual tears of rage.

That post is so much more eloquent than I could ever be, but suffice to say that it's really hard not to completely despair in the face of attitudes like these. To know that many guys (and maybe even girls!) I know or at least am acquainted with will go see this movie and laugh at this scene makes my stomach twist painfully. And the fact that Jody Hill lifts this scene up as something "edgy" and "hilarious" is just as painful. It's not even the product of some studio pushing for it, or something ignorant - it is a willful act of subjugating the right of a woman to her own body for the purposes of humor and entertainment.

I am so, so angry. And sad.

Comments

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

The difference between murder and rape is that everyone knows murder is wrong. There's no ifs ands or buts about it - murder is wrong, and everyone knows it, so that's built into any comedy about it. Rape, on the other hand, is an extremely sensitive cultural issue - women don't report rapes because no one believes them, women have to pay for the rape kits performed on them at the hospital, women who get pregnant from rape are told to keep the baby, women are blamed for situations in which they were clearly the victim just because they were wearing clothes that meant they were "asking for it," or something equally horrible. It's an issue that has traumatized many many women, and this situation is not even a comedic rape - it is straight out rape, and the audience is asked to laugh at it. To laugh at the simple act of fucking a woman when she is incapable of consent (conscious or not, the simple fact of her intoxication renders consent impossible). The parallel is completely invalid, as far as I'm concerned.

[jamesinclair.livejournal.com]

Your point about murder humor and rape humor makes sense. However, I still think you should see the movie before forming an angry opinion on it. You may be completely right, but its impossible to know without the context.

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

I will never spend any money or time on this movie, because the facts are incontrovertible. There is a scene in which a fully conscious man has sex with a woman who is high/drunk beyond belief. There is no question about whether or not that is wrong - it. is. wrong. And the director's statement about the humor of it only seals the deal. Maybe I'll watch 5 seconds of it when it shows up on youtube, just to confirm my opinion, but I don't feel it is necessary in the slightest.

Maybe I'm a stubborn bitch, but Jody Hill can go fuck himself with a rusty rake.

[jamesinclair.livejournal.com]

Not wanting to spend money on it is understandable. But watch it online, and not just that scene. You cant get a feel for what kind of movie and humor it is without the whole thing.

Knocked up had a scene in which the woman is drunk (and so is the man) resulting in a baby. That's a very different kind of humor than this one.

None of the reviews I read even make reference to the scene, so it must not be remarkable in comparison.