TRIGGER WARNING: rape, suggestion of murder, general offensiveness towards women.
Just in case you cannot read the three images above, here is a transcript:
Original status: Dear fb friends, I wanna know your favv pickup line. Comment!
Female 1: Are you gay? No? Lets make out.
Male A: Gentlemen don’t use pickup lines, they devalue women…wait, was that a pickup line? JK, I meant what I said.
Male B: Does your leg hurt? Because you must be an angel fallen from the sky.
Female 2: Tu cheese bari hai mast mast
Female 3: Is that a mirror in your pants, cause I can see myself in them.
Male C: Allow me to release my basilisk into your chamber of secrets
Male D: I’m working on my abs
Male E: this will go alot smoother for both of us if you stop resisting
Male F: You must be my new boss because you just gave me a raise. (Most likely not gonna work & chappal for free. )
Female 2 again: on your comments it just looks like all these people are trying to hit on you lol
Male F again: ^ she’s to blame for this since she’s looking so preety… lol (see what I did there!)
Male G: i once picked up a girl by asking her if she was a lesbian. and then when she said no i told her my friend wanted to dance with her
Male G again: another time i told a girl my friend was a charity case and his make a wish was to dance with her lmao… it worked
Female 4: The word of the day is “legs” so let’s go back to my place and spread the word. (most pick up lines are for hook ups)
Female 5: it’s funny because earlier today [boyfriend] randomly came out or our room and said that pickup line to me lol. Now i know why lol
Male H: I have a 45 and a shovel I doubt anyone will miss u stop resisting
Male I:Guy: hey wanna go hook up?
Girl: sorry my bf is over there
Guy: my fish died wen I was 6
Girl: huh?
Guy: uh I thought we were telling each other stuff we don’t care about
—
Today, kids, we are going to talk about rape culture.
Rape culture is when “pick-up lines” that perpetuate graphic violence against women, disrespect a woman’s choices, and disregard her sexuality (or use it as a way to get with her) are all seen as “funny.” Rape culture is being able to claim “it’s just a joke, stop taking it so seriously”. Rape culture is allowing these “pick-up lines” to go unchecked for what they really are: violent harassment against women and just plain old sexist.
Rape culture is any culture in which rape and sexual violence are normalized by methods such as the above status and its following comments.
Pick-up lines are not inherently bad. Some of the comments above are actually funny -personally, I like the Harry Potter reference, since that gives plenty of space for the person to say ‘no’. The “angel” one is also fairly common, as far as I know, and the mirror one isn’t that bad either.
I want to be clear: Not all of these lines can be used by solely by men to get women. However, due to the fact that the majority of the comments which perpetuate violence (rape, murder), disrespect choice (having a significant other), and use sexuality (being gay or not) were written by men, most of whom (if not all) are heterosexual. The first comment which uses sexual orientation to pick someone up was written by a female, but that leaves other comments which fall into one of the three categories above (and others which are just generally offensive) which were written by males (who are hypothetically using these pick-up lines to get women, or even just using them now to be ‘funny’ in this instance).
So let’s break this down.
1.) Generally offensive:
Male D: I’m working on my abs
Offensive because some people are not attracted to looks, but rather to intellect or charity or basically anything. Maybe a better pick-up line would be something more like ‘I have no sexually transmitted diseases/infections’. This is offensive because it just lacks any sort of intelligence needed for decent conversation.
Male F: You must be my new boss because you just gave me a raise. (Most likely not gonna work & chappal for free. )
This one is offensive because, seriously, it is already difficult enough for women to be in a position of power in the workplace (look up ‘glass ceiling’ and ‘glass escalator’ and then look up ‘female CEO vs male CEO’) and now this just mocks it. Awesome. I’m so glad that you are the type of guy who only supports women in positions of power if she is attractive enough to make your penis hard.
Male G again: another time i told a girl my friend was a charity case and his make a wish was to dance with her lmao… it worked
This… I just can’t.
2.) Using sexuality:
Female 1: Are you gay? No? Let’s make out.
Male G: i once picked up a girl by asking her if she was a lesbian. and then when she said no i told her my friend wanted to dance with her
Let me make this very clear: The fact that you are heterosexual and another person of the opposite sex is heterosexual DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU ARE ENTITLED TO MAKE OUT/SLEEP WITH/DATE/FUCK/KISS/OR BE WITH THEM IN ANY WAY. It is this type of thinking -that if a girl likes guys and you are a guy, therefore she must like you -leads to sexual harassment and rape. Thinking that you are entitled to ANYTHING when it comes to another person is simply wrong.
She owes you nothing.
It doesn’t matter if you bought her a drink.
It doesn’t matter if you are ‘such a nice guy’.
It doesn’t matter if she happens to be attracted to guys and you are one.
It doesn’t matter if she flirted a little or even a lot.
It doesn’t matter if she kissed you or if you gave her a ride home or if you helped her up the stairs or if she invited you in or if she gave you her number or if she wants to date you or if she marries you or if she did this or that or anything.
It doesn’t matter, because nothing you do entitles you to anything. She owes you nothing.
3.) Disrespect choice (having a significant other)
Male I:Guy: hey wanna go hook up?
Girl: sorry my bf is over there
Guy: my fish died wen I was 6
Girl: huh?
Guy: uh I thought we were telling each other stuff we don’t care about
This is something I really hate, and I’m sure many women have experienced it. You, a woman, are being hit on by some guy that you don’t care about and don’t want to be with. Regardless of whether you’ve told him no already and he ignored it, or if you’re just telling him no for the first time, we often fall back on the ‘I have a boyfriend’ card.
Because, apparently, in this society, a ‘no’ from a woman is irrelevant until it is noted that she is only saying ‘no’ to you because she is with another guy. That’s when most guys will back off, because of the respect for the other guy -not for the girl. Until, of course, the two break up, and then she’s free game again, right?!
No means no.
When you ask a girl, do you want to hook up, and she says ANYTHING THAT IS NOT YES, it is a no. She is a human fucking being, and she deserves your respect, regardless of whether or not it’s what you want.
4.) Perpetuate violence (rape, murder)
Male E: this will go alot smoother for both of us if you stop resisting
Male H: I have a 45 and a shovel I doubt anyone will miss u stop resisting
These, to me, are honestly the most terrifying. These more than any other comments perpetuate graphic violence against women. Despite the glaring incorrect grammar in both of these comments, they both mention resistance. From this one word alone, we can assume that the woman doesn’t want to be ‘picked up’, and the threat of rape is there.
The second one goes even further, because he chooses to mention that he has a gun and a shovel, which then threatens murder. Basically, if you don’t let me rape you, then I will rape you anyway and then kill you and bury you so that no one will know.
And I’m sure there are some of you who are out there right now saying ‘They were just joking, they would never say this to anyone if they REALLY wanted to pick them up’.
They aren’t ‘just’ jokes.
For those of you who do not click on the links I provide, I’ll sum this one up. This is research done by a college professor and graduate assistants which found that sexist humor creates a ‘safe space’ for people to become more tolerant to sexist attitudes and behavior. Sexist jokes lead to a toleration of hostile and discriminatory attitudes towards women and serve as a way to legitimize sexist actions.
These attitudes can then potentially be expressed by violent acts -like rape and murder.
So, no, nothing is ever ‘just a joke’. That is a piss-poor excuse for letting things like this go unexcused. These men are sexist and potentially violent towards women, and what’s terrifying is that in this culture of normalized violence, they (and other men like them) can and are getting away with it.