Online website must be flagged for shaming Joshua Robinson’s rape victim

By: Ben Matchap

I really find Mustsharenews’ article ‘5 MMA Techniques Taught By Paedophile Josh Robinson That Could Be Used To Fight Off Josh Robinson‘ to be very insensitive and in bad taste.

I get the attempt at satire but imagine if you were the victim reading this?

“One of the 15-year-old girls assaulted by Josh Robinson said she did not dare to resist him as he was “tall and muscular. If she had seen this video she may have been able to put up better resistance.”

Rape is already a hard thing to speak up about, let alone making a police report and going through the grind trying to bring the person to justice; while fighting the slut shaming from society at the same time. Such comments play into the slut shaming mindset of “well she could have done something” or “she asked for it for being there”.

Again i understand the attempt at satire but i don’t think it was done very well because you are pretty much using the rape victim as the butt of your joke while showing everyone Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) videos of Josh Robinson demonstrating what she “could have done”.

Are you suggesting that a 15 year old girl will be able to defend herself from a bigger sized MMA trained fighter who was going to rape her?

I don’t want to just point the blame solely at the website and demand that they apologise. I think it would be better for us to look at this issue and learn how we can talk and even joke about these things in a more sensitive manner.

Like if you were going to make a joke about rape, maybe do so while highlighting how society has a problem with dealing with such issues.

Here’s a rape joke: (insert sarcastic tone)

“Yeah, we should be fair and equal, girls and boys should take responsibility when it comes to rape.

Girls should be responsible for:
Not wearing clothes that are too revealing.
watching their drinks.
not going to a guys house alone.
knowing better.
be accompanied by trusted friend.
not be too trusting towards guys.

And guys should be responsible for:

NOT COMMITTING RAPE.”

Ok, maybe this joke isn’t that funny! My comedian skills are kinda noob. But this is the point I am trying to make. We can talk and joke about anything, but how we do it is important.

The whole problem with mustsharenews’s article is that they put the responsibility into the victim’s hands and not the perpetrator’s.