“Taking Responsibility” For Getting Raped

I feel sorry for Jonathan Swift. The term “satire” and specifically Swift’s “modest proposal” about eating Irish children gets pressed into service to excuse and defend more offensive nonsense than Swift could have ever predicted. But the art of satire, as Swift employed it, isn’t dead, nor even entirely lost even after being used as the dumping ground for all that sloppy rubbish.*

A Denver-area kinkster and consent activist, Coco Jones (not the radio personality) has graced us with “I’m Taking Responsibility For Getting Raped.” If you’re writing a manual on how to satirize offensive, oppressive bullshit the Swiftian way, by treating it entirely seriously within the four corners of the text and letting it hang itself, you would do well to use this as your example:

I owe everyone an apology. I never expected to write this, I was stuck in a different mindset for a long time. But I think it’s time I accept something and admit where I have gone wrong. I have been pushing away, countering, debating, and made myself an all out controversial figure in the community. And what for? This whole time I just haven’t been listening. I’ve been deflecting and refusing to take ownership for something.

It’s time for me to step up and accept what so many have been saying. I am finally going to take personal responsibility for getting raped. Yep, you heard me. No more of this, ‘stop victim blaming’. I have gotten the message loud and clear. You are right. I did this. You finally broke through to me.

So, this is how I got myself raped and how I will be at fault for a future rape, or perhaps a mere consent violation, should it occur.

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3. I let people in my life. I have relationships and friendships. I allow them in my home, I eat food they prepare for me without watching them cook it. I open the door when I am alone. I leave the house by myself to meet them places. I even let my partner tie me up and believe he won’t rape me on MERE TRUST.

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5. I dress like a fucking slut. No, really. I wear clothes that touch my body. I have hair. Sometimes it is up, sometimes I wear it down. I accentuate my eyes and lips with make-up. I go out in the world like this. Regularly.

6. My reflexes are not cat-like. If you throw something at me, it will hit me. I will not deflect it with a sudden, practiced movement. Things can catch my by surprise and I am not always ready for them. I should be sharpening my instincts daily. Instead I forget to because I’m usually doing something less important.

So, as you can see I let myself become a victim. I opened the floodgates and brought this on myself. I am glad that so many people refused to give up on me. I kept saying over and over how we need to stand up against perpetrators without realizing they have absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH IT! This isn’t about a ‘consent violator’ or a ‘rapist’. No, this is about taking responsibility for myself. I got myself raped!

Quoting this in bits will not do it justice, it is worth a read in full.  In addition, Coco Jones has other writings about consent and kinky communities that will likely appeal to the readership here:  go for the grimly humorous activist piece, stay for the humorously grim activist pieces, read the whole thing.

*Hugh MacDiarmid reference. Go fish, poetry people.