Well, not this time.
My favorite post on the subject is by Natalia Antonova, called: Dear God, Seth Rogen, Rape is Rape. And honestly I think the title alone says it all (but go read the post anyway cuz, really, it's good).
If you've yet to hear about this and have no idea what I'm talking about, in the course of the movie Seth Rogen's character date rapes the main love interest. She's drunk, he's not and he has sex with her while she's passed out. What is supposedly meant to justify this scene is that she wakes up long enough to say "why are you stopping, motherfucker?" That's according to Seth himself.
Not. Fucking. Cool.
I don't care what someone says when they're *not actually conscious*, that's not consent. Is this really that difficult?
Now, apparently we're not really supposed to even like his character. I'm sorry, that doesn't work for me.
Do you know WHY that doesn't work for me? Because we have realities like this in the world:
Although a few boys may have quietly disagreed with their classmates, the vocal [middle school] students spent class arguing that James had not raped Tonya [in the hypothetical scenario (which is almost exactly like Rogen's character's)]. Ironically, the boys based their arguments on many of the same things that legally defined teh scenario as rape: they said it was not rape because Tonya was passed out, because seh was drunk, because she had failed to make any decision - yes or no. Others argued that Tonya did not protest when she woke up, she was James's girlfriend, she flirted, and, had she been able, she might have said yes. [The rape crisis presenter's] tried futilely to convince the boys that the sex was rape: "It was against her will," they reminded the boys. "Did she get to make the decision to be sexual?" the women pleaded. The boys insisted that because Tonya had not indicated that she did not want to have sex, the sex was consensual.
(Risky Lessons, by Jessica Fields, pg 90)
That's why.
Overall, I still like you Seth Rogen, but you just reinforced this FUCKED UP assumption that boys are already making. THAT'S NOT OK. How would YOU feel, if this was deemed to be all that was needed for your own consent?
People I love who have done shit I hate might be a recurring segment. Not sure yet. Hope not.
But I do have one more... Did any of you see any of these "PG Porn" things? They're webisode dealies from some supposedly very clever people, whatever. The very first one featured Nathan Fillion. So of course I was like, ok the premise sounds funny and, well, Nate! So I watched it.
Dear gods. Horrible. At the end he shoots a nail into this woman's head while she's going to give him a blow job. I'm sorry, that's not funny. I can see, on paper perhaps, why it seemed funny. But. It's not. At all. It was, in fact, unbelievably disturbing and I was extremely pissed that Nathan did it. Just, no.
