Forgot to share this...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-25362938
(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71730000/jpg/_71730726_71730725.jpg)
They've denied that the poem is offensive and insist that it will raise awareness in rapists about the impact of their crime.
The poem is being placed as posters at train stations.
NOPE.
If by increase awareness they mean induce hysteria and push others over the edge in the depression season then they have done their job.
I can't stop laughing.
It isn't "offensive", I don't think; what it is, is unbelievably tacky. And bad. It's just bad.
The messages are all good: hey lady, the police are here for you and are on your side! Rapists, you have no right to do that! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
It's kind of just the combination of the three that makes me go :aaa: :? :horrormirth:
Quote from: Radagast's Red Velvet Pancake Puppies on December 16, 2013, 10:56:42 PM
I can't stop laughing.
It isn't "offensive", I don't think; what it is, is unbelievably tacky. And bad. It's just bad.
The messages are all good: hey lady, the police are here for you and are on your side! Rapists, you have no right to do that! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
It's kind of just the combination of the three that makes me go :aaa: :? :horrormirth:
I admire it on a level of "really fucking awful verse".
I don't see that it's offensive. Who's the bad guy? Not her. Who's to blame? Not her.
"Insensitive" is probably a better term than "offensive."
There are people offended, so I think it's probably offensive, in the same way that when people are impressed a thing is impressive. I really like the stubborn "I'm not being offensive, you're just being offended" in the face of upset readers.
It sounds like part of what affected some survivors is the tone of the thing. It's like having Oompa Loompas describe a sexual assault.
The LOLDAILYMAIL has got more of the response: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2523174/Rape-victims-attack-Nottinghamshire-Polices-sex-attack-Christmas-poem.html
Quote'I have spoken to some of our clients who have been victims of sexual assault and they have been utterly distressed and shocked by this poem.
'They feel that the re-working of a poem aimed at children trivialises the worst event in their lives ... Children familiar with the proper Christmas poem would be left very confused if they came across this police version.'She added that the force should concentrate on a 'stark, unambiguous message that rape is wrong'.
QuoteA spokesman for the group Sexual Abuse Survivors said the phrase 'happened in a flash' was not an accurate portrayal of a victim's experience. She added: 'That experience can feel like it goes on forever and even after the attack it will stay with that person for a very long time almost like a recording in their mind that goes over and over again.'
Quote from: Pæs on December 16, 2013, 11:12:12 PMIt's like having Oompa Loompas describe a sexual assault.
As soon as I typed it... that fucking mental image.
Quote from: Pæs on December 16, 2013, 11:14:14 PM
Quote from: Pæs on December 16, 2013, 11:12:12 PMIt's like having Oompa Loompas describe a sexual assault.
As soon as I typed it... that fucking mental image.
Thread over.
:potd:
Insensitive in terms of it implies X-mas is the raping season so be really real be careful. Offensive I don't see it because of the last verses.
Quote from: Q. G. Pennyworth on December 16, 2013, 11:07:30 PM
"Insensitive" is probably a better term than "offensive."
Yeah? How?
Quote from: Dirty Old Uncle Roger on December 17, 2013, 01:12:50 AM
Quote from: Q. G. Pennyworth on December 16, 2013, 11:07:30 PM
"Insensitive" is probably a better term than "offensive."
Yeah? How?
IMO, because the rape survivors who are responding don't seem to feel that "Oompa, Loompa, floompity fail, if you're a rapist, you'll go to jail." conveys suitable gravitas for the experience it describes.
Quote from: Pæs on December 17, 2013, 01:16:38 AM
Quote from: Dirty Old Uncle Roger on December 17, 2013, 01:12:50 AM
Quote from: Q. G. Pennyworth on December 16, 2013, 11:07:30 PM
"Insensitive" is probably a better term than "offensive."
Yeah? How?
IMO, because the rape survivors who are responding don't seem to feel that "Oompa, Loompa, floompity fail, if you're a rapist, you'll go to jail." conveys suitable gravitas for the experience it describes.
Have you ever seen the looks on the faces of police when they arrest someone that really needs to be arrested? I've enjoyed the experience. There is a horrible & vast mirth involved. Ho ho ho.
That poem wasn't written by the police to the victims of rape. It was written to the
rapist. It is a promise of the transformation of their lives into one never-ending series of tragic misunderstandings.
If, back in the day, I grinned horribly at a wife beater while stuffing him in the back of the cruiser, would you assume that I was laughing at the victim? Or just enjoying the notion of the next few hours, and the terrible mess that Cletus's life had just become?
It's insensitive in that it is not being sensitive to the feelings of rape survivors or their friends and allies who may be reading it. You can't compare it to the Cletus example because the cop is grinning AT CLETUS. This is a poster at a bus stop facing everyone, and statistically speaking it's pretty unlikely everyone there is a rapist.
I think warping a Christmas poem into an admonition against rape is a little distasteful but I'm entirely willing to admit that has more to do with my own issues than anything else. Christmas is typically seen as something clean or holy . . . when you're ignoring the blatant commercialization and shit. Rape is ugly and dirty. The dueling imagery does well to make one stop and go WTF. Which lends the message a bit of sticking power.
I wonder if they're going to print out the lyrics to Sublime's "Date Rape" and put them up all over, next. That would give me a chuckle.
John Waters would totally approve of this ad.
I agree that them turning a Christmas poem into a poem about rape is pretty distasteful. With that said, maybe it's just because it seems like here the accuser gets told to stop being a whore, and the guy accused of rape gets a high five on the way out the door, but shit it's hard to get angry at a police department that actually gives a damn.
I think I see what the problem is. It's that they attempted something, and failed. Failed badly, in fact. They attempted to take something that is common to nearly everyone in the area - Christmas - and tweak a well-known poem to become one that is dark and sad and touching. They wanted it to invoke empathy for the poor blameless victim who only wanted to do a bit of shopping, a sense of support from the helpful coppers she turns to after her rape (who are also trying to convey that they won't victimize her a second time so she shouldn't be afraid to go to them) and also they wanted to invoke fear in the would-be rapist, an awareness that no matter how entitled he felt to rape it was not only not his entitlement but also, he should be afraid because the police are going to side with the victim and hunt him down like a dog and his attempts to blame the victim will not be believed.
They tried to do all this by bastardizing "'Twas the Night Before Christmas", and they did it horribly. It fell flat in pretty much every dimension. It's awful, and it invokes pretty much nothing but ridiculousness and a complete lack of reverence for the poem or for the subject matter.
It's well-meant. It's simply bad.
There's probably more than a touch of disdain for the thing as UK cops are pretty notorious for not helping out in exactly these kind of situations. This month is filled with office xmas parties and there are lots of "mistakes", "Misunderstandings" and "keep your fucking mouth shut or you'll lose your job". From what I've seen, unless the woman is stone cold sober and the rapists has a pocket full of pills its all just one big benny hill sketch, go home and sleep it off.
The attitude in the "poem" really does not convey an accurate police experience in any way. Assuming they even take you seriously, you could be in a for a pretty fucking traumatic time from them while they get the required evidence and statements. More than the odd complaint about how officers handle reporting of such incidents.
So Tacky, terrible verse and a totally unrealistic promise of help and swift resolution. I can see why some are displeased.
James MaGonnagal bad. I love whomever wrote that.
What I want to see are the previous drafts. I bet there were a few howlers in those.
Quote from: Junkenstein on December 17, 2013, 02:54:06 PM
What I want to see are the previous drafts. I bet there were a few howlers in those.
Quote from: Pæs on December 17, 2013, 01:16:38 AM"Oompa, Loompa, floompity fail, if you're a rapist, you'll go to jail."
Quote from: Hoopla on December 17, 2013, 05:43:37 PM
Quote from: Junkenstein on December 17, 2013, 02:54:06 PM
What I want to see are the previous drafts. I bet there were a few howlers in those.
Quote from: Pæs on December 17, 2013, 01:16:38 AM"Oompa, Loompa, floompity fail, if you're a rapist, you'll go to jail."
:lulz:
"Come on, officer, I was just getting some tail!"
"No, you're a rapist and you're going to jail."
Goddamn it Hoops, now I'm writing incredibly offensive Oompa Loompa rhymes in my head, with a turnaround in the last line to "justify" it.
Haet Yuo.
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on December 17, 2013, 05:57:42 PM
Goddamn it Hoops, now I'm writing incredibly offensive Oompa Loompa rhymes in my head, with a turnaround in the last line to "justify" it.
Haet Yuo.
I'm doing the same thing, only to a ska/rasta beat because radio.
Quote from: Hoopla on December 17, 2013, 05:43:37 PM
Quote from: Junkenstein on December 17, 2013, 02:54:06 PM
What I want to see are the previous drafts. I bet there were a few howlers in those.
Quote from: Pæs on December 17, 2013, 01:16:38 AM"Oompa, Loompa, floompity fail, if you're a rapist, you'll go to jail."
Actual spittake. +1 internet to Paes.
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on December 17, 2013, 05:57:42 PM
Goddamn it Hoops, now I'm writing incredibly offensive Oompa Loompa rhymes in my head, with a turnaround in the last line to "justify" it.
Haet Yuo.
Don't keep them to yourself.
These are lyrics that come with their own trigger warnings. I feel ugly just thinking them.
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on December 17, 2013, 05:57:42 PM
Goddamn it Hoops, now I'm writing incredibly offensive Oompa Loompa rhymes in my head, with a turnaround in the last line to "justify" it.
Haet Yuo.
:regret:
:lulz: :lulz: :lulz: