Recently it has been reported that stores in the Philippines were stocking a T-Shirt that said ‘It’s not Rape, It’s a Snuggle with a Struggle.’
I’m glad these shirts were removed, and I think the folks who stocked these have some serious explaining to do. This kind of thing isn’t restricted to just the Philippines, though. Yahoo! News reported that a few online American distributors had shirts with similar phrases.
If we assume that the people who buy these shirts aren’t complete creeps, then the only way I see to see explain why anyone would want this is because they like the “shock humor” of the slogan. If that’s the case, then it’s a very lame, thoughtless attempt at shock humor. A large fraction of women out there have been sexually assaulted, so why would you want to walk into a mall, wearing this shirt, which is guaranteed to spark unpleasant memories in the minds of some people who see it? Moreover, you’d be creating the perception that you are mocking the experience they went through. Nobody with a half a brain and a sense of basic human decency would wear a shirt like that.
One reason I’ve chosen to post on this is because I recently posted a video offering a critical view of rape allegations and whom we should believe, and I want to make it absolutely clear that although I’m not on board with some of the stances that have been taken on the issue, I don’t support harming women, or wearing stupid shock value T-shirts that make light of harming women.
