Typical

I went home from college a couple weeks ago to visit friends and family, and a graphic image has stayed with me the past couple weeks. Someone I know, lets call him Jake, had a desktop background of the head of his friend’s sister placed on a naked woman, and all his friends’ faces on stick figures jacking off to this pornographic image. I tried shrugging this disgusting picture off, you know, “boys will be boys” kind of thing. Only not.
As time went on I realized how typical this behavior was. In order to make fun of his friend, Jake decided to violate a woman in his friend’s life. How many times does this happen in a day? An army officer demoralizes a man by raping his wife. In the movie Crash, a police officer infuriates a man by molesting his wife. Jake obviously didn’t think about how the image would hurt his friend’s sister. Don’t you think these acts affect those violated 10 TIMES more than “their men”? People don’t think of her feelings because she is an object. It’s like an unwritten rule - you attack men by vandalizing their “possessions”… their car, their house, and their women, right? Using women as a revenge tactic is only solidifying the subconscious (or in many places conscious) thought of woman as property. Why directly attack a man when you can filthy and devalue his property?
I would feel personally violated if that was my face in the background. Wouldn’t anybody? Men are able to laugh at this violence because they are never the ones being hurt through this “humor”. Acceptance of images like Jake’s background makes actual gang rapes seem like less of a gruesome human rights violation then it most definitely is.
The sad thing is the fact that Jake has no idea what impact he is having on our society’s outlook on women. He sees this art as a careless joke. What’s even sadder is I didn’t tell him. We need to stand up against these acts in order to protect those women who have no voice to say it’s wrong. For those women who are continually violated in conflict zones with no one to reinsure their worth as a HUMAN BEING. Don’t let people treat women like this and think it is harmless. STAND UP!