talkingtwits-blog

[talkingtwits-blog]

Twitter is designed in a way that lets an indvidual post pretty much anything that comes to mind as long as it is under 140 characters.  Many people on social media have this drive to gain as many followers as possible to be in this case "twitter famous." One of the fastest ways to rise to this internet fame is through comedy since it something that everyone relates to.  However, comedy walks a line between acceptable and offensive and some people slip up, or like in the tweet above, dive over the edge.  Despite the impact that it has on survivors and the people that love them rape is often taken extremely lightly.  In Tabarius' tweet above he explains how him raping a girl should be taken as a compliment since he is risking jail time.  The tweet shows a narcissistic viewpoint, Tabarius feels that his attack should be taken as a gift.   There are one thousand one hundred and seventy nine favorites on this tweet, a number akin to a large high school "liked" this tweet.  One thousand three hundred and  thirty eight people re-tweeted Tabarius' musing.  Once again despite my hypothesis that re-tweets would have more chastising than support the very first one says "realests tweet of all..." I am inferring that the next word is time.  Basically that this tweet speaks complete and total truth. The ease and zeal that all of these people have to publicly show their support of rape culture  makes it clear that they don't anticipate any true consequences.  

[talkingtwits-blog]

These two images show individuals sprawled on the floor mimicking a photo taken of Jada, a Houston teenager, after she was drugged and raped.  The very essence of these photos existence shows the perpetuation of rape culture on twitter.  The people copying the pose either are not thinking about the events that led to the original photo or they do not care. People blocked out the faces but it is clearly done after the fact, these people had no issue with allowing their identities to be attached to the photos.  This is especially true since they were posted to their individual twitters.   It was hard to find a photo that had the favorites and re-tweet count and I believe that there are some with much higher numbers.  There are twenty eight favorites on the left photo. 

[talkingtwits-blog]

This is a dual screen shot one with a picture of a woman standing in leggings accompanied by the caption "Nigga im outside fuckin 7-11 and i just wanna know how much a rape charge again?"  This tweet has three thousand seven hundred and fourteen favorites; however, it has four thousand three hundred and sixty two re-tweets.  Unfortunately it does not seem to be four thousand three hundred and sixty two comments on how rape is not a joke, or how he is not entitled to this woman's body.  The accompanying screen shot shows five of the comments added to the tweet.  All of them are affirmations.  The first one basically says to just go for it, the second one requests that he is also given a turn, the third one also says to go for it, the fourth one agrees that they to would like to know how much a rape charge is and the fifth one is simply laughter.  None of these people saw an issue with what was being said.  As stated on tumblr page prokeptz.tumblr.com "rape is the only crime where the defense can be that the crime was just 'too tempting' to not commit." This tweet is an example of this,  Rape culture should be abhorred by all people, but it is especially disheartening to see girls supporting something that directly oppresses them.  There is no support with simply the prospect of rape, but social media outlets like twitter also allow people to mass disrespect after the assault as well.  

[talkingtwits-blog]

This image is of a female who is sprawled on the floor surrounded by vomit.  The comment reads "Someone put something in her drink but anyways me and my brother about to rape this bitch."  Not only does "Lil Juan" treat the idea of this woman being drugged with cavaliered indifference, but he also goes on to mention the premeditation of a serious crime.  He does so on a social media website which insures that people will know what he has done.  Two hundred and twenty four people saw what he did and chose to favorite (like) the tweet.  Two hundred and twenty four people had no qualms with connecting their accounts to this picture with no need to denounce it. There were six hundred and two re-tweets.  Re-tweets give the twitter user the option to add commentary and in situations like these hopefully the commentary is educational and not celebratory. This however is not always the case.

[talkingtwits-blog]

My Goal

The goal of this blog is to explore rape culture and how it manifests itself on Twitter.  I want to use scholarly articles to examine real world examples.  On Twitter a person has the option to favorite a post with no commentary or re-tweet which gives them the chance to comment on what has been said.  By comparing the sheer numbers of favorites versus re-tweets I hope to develop a better understanding of how people view rape culture within today's modern society.