“Hey
man.”
“Hey.”
“How’s
it going?”
“S’alright,
yeah. You?”
“Decent.
You hear about Jenny?”
“What?
Jenny, isn’t she that girl we have calculus with?”
“Yeah,
Dave saw her making out with Denise. You know what that means!”
“What
are you talking about?”
“Dude,
there are lesbians. In our class. They’re gonna make out and shit and we can
watch!”
“That’s
not how that works. Maybe you should just give them space. Obviously they don’t
want people to know.”
“Fuck
that, what’s your problem? They’re hot. Don’t you want to watch?”
“They’re
people. It’s their life, they aren’t doing it for you to watch.”
“Whatever,
you gay or something? Maybe they’ll let me join in.”
“I’m
pretty sure they don’t want you to ‘join in’.”
“Maybe
not at first, but once I get started they’ll love it.”
“Are
you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“What?”
“Guy,
that’s rape. You can’t do that.”
“Jesus,
man, they’re just some dykes. They don’t know what they’re missing. They’ll
like it.”
“No,
that’s not allowed. That’s straight up rape man. You’re talking about raping
two people!”
“Chill
out, it’s fine. God, people get so worked up these days. Can’t I just have some
fun with these two? They’ll like it, all women like dick once they try it.”
“Listen,
you gotta shut up about this. You can’t say these things.”
“Fuck
off, pussy.”
“Hey,
Jenny? Do you have a sec?”
“Um,
hi, do I know you?”
“Not
really, we have calculus together. Listen, you know John?”
“The
football douche? No offense if he’s you’re friend.”
“No,
he’s a douche. His friend Dave saw you and Denise—“
“What
did he say? What do you want?”
“No,
it’s nothing like that. Not really. I just want to let you know. John’s gonna
tell people. And…”
“And
what?”
“He
wants to sleep with you and Denise and it doesn’t matter to him if you guys say
yes… He thinks all women are straight no matter what.”
“Are…are
you serious?”
“Yeah.”
“He
told you that?”
“Yeah.
Called me gay when I told him that was wrong. Listen, I don’t know what you can
do, but just be careful.”
“Hey,
thanks for letting me know.”
“Yeah.”
Things
like this are a sad reality to those in the queer community. This specific kind
of rape even has a name: corrective rape. It happens when straight people, men
and women, rape a gay, bi, pan, ace, trans, person in the attempt to “show them
the error in their ways”. Lesbians and asexual people are at a high risk for
this. Lesbians because of how over-sexualized they are in media, and asexual
people because of they are often viewed as prudish, religious, or broken. Many
people think that if they have heterosexual sex with people, they will “fix”
them and turn them straight.
This
mindset is brought on by religion, society, and the media. Everywhere one looks,
straight couples are shown as the normal, as the correct thing. It is with this
environment that corrective rape came to being. This is why queer people call
out for better representation in the media. This is why it is important for
corporations to listen. And yet straight people will get upset. “They can’t be
gay”, “Dude, they’re straight. Not everyone is gay”. That’s the problem. No one
is gay in the media. Star Wars is thinking of adding its first gay character,
and people are outraged. Why? The franchise is about space wizards with laser
swords. Why the fuck can’t some of them be gay? This past year, the CW had
several gay, lesbian, and bi characters. They killed off all the lesbians. Why?
The death of other characters would’ve been just as shocking and impactful. But
the lesbians aren’t as important as the straight characters. They’re seen as
lesser. And with this attitude, corrective rape grows. Every time queer
characters are treated as novelties, it dehumanizes them. And whenever
something is dehumanized in the media, it leaks into real life. Look at war
time propaganda, the Japanese were shown as soulless monsters who wanted to eat
children, and that racism has held over. It wasn’t true, it was just
propaganda. That’s today’s media though, everything has a message and a hidden
meaning. Everything we watch is pushing something or someone. As we move closer
to true equality, our media poisons that idea in secret.
The
sad thing is, allies get drawn into this trap as well. They support the queer
community, but heaven forbid that they’re favourite characters come out as gay.
Heaven forbid someone ships two male characters together.
When
only straight is seen as right and correct, corrective rape grows. That is why
hate crimes against the queer community rarely get punished. That is why so
many people still think it’s okay to use gay as an insult. That’s why it’s
still okay to mock other genders and insult people by calling them another
gender. Because we’ve been dehumanized for so long, we’ve become passive
towards it. We begin to think that maybe we are overreacting, and we allow the
thoughts to grow and fester until it overwhelms us. Even members of the queer
community take part in the dehumanization. From telling certain groups that
they aren’t gay enough to be a part, to outright saying some members don’t
exist.
Until
we stand together as one community—a community with many parts yes, but working
together!—, we won’t be able to achieve our goals of acceptance and equality.
For if we do not treat each other with equality and acceptance, why would the
rest of the world?