In November 2015, we posted a blog post about the language of ‘rape culture’, specifically about ‘rape jokes’.
The blog featured the results of a survey we conducted in order to find out the nation’s views on ‘rape jokes’ including how many people have made or heard them, their attitude towards them and their views on modern usage of the word ‘rape’.
The survey found that:
- 23% of 18-24-year-olds regularly hear others joke that they would rape someone
- 41% admitted they had personally made some kind of joke about sexual assault or offenders or had flippantly used the word ‘rape’ to mean something less serious. This rose to 71% when looking at 18-24-year-olds.
- 48% of people knew the term ‘Facebook rape’ – highest familiarity was amongst 18-24-year-olds (88%)
- 86% think rape jokes are insensitive to victims
- 75% think rape jokes can reinforce negative attitudes towards women
- 70% feel rape jokes normalise sexual violence
The blog post was picked up by the Guardian who used the findings of the survey in a response to a series of controversial Christmas ads which flippantly used sexual violence references.
