before i lose my style

oldtobegin:

what matters is all of the men and women in that room who laughed - LAUGHED - when daniel tosh suggested that it would be funny if a SPECIFIC WOMAN WERE VIOLATED. they, as a room, as a space, harassed and violated her, and they continue to do it on the internet when they joke about what happened.

part of what makes comedy wonderful and dangerous and exciting and powerful as an art form is that it’s a communal experience. like, yes, the comedian tells the jokes and dictates the theme, but the mood of a room when comedy is happening is a shared and manufactured space that we all participate in together. comedians talk about how one heckler can ruin their set; so, too, can a room full of people with love in their hearts create something unparalleled in any other art form (in my experience). and neither does it end when the space disassembles - it’s a feeling that can stay in the hearts of the people in the room for hours, for years, forever.

i’ve spoken about this with my friend jessica before - there are times when in shared spaces like this (live music being prime among them), a mood is created in which i do not feel safe. (we agreed, i believe, that a room in which shellac is playing “prayer to god” is such a space, particularly during the song’s crescendo.) that feeling of UNSAFENESS is not about the intentions of the artist - rather, it’s about the mood in the room. it is a tangible space that is created by all of the people who have assembled together - it is about what those people have done in the way they receive and process the art.

so when daniel tosh says “wouldn’t it be so funny if she was raped by five guys RIGHT NOW?” and a room erupts in laughter, everyone who has laughed is actually actively committing violence against this woman from which she may never heal - and against every other person in the room whose lives have been touched by sexual violence, even if they are engaging in the laughter. language is art. language is weapon. and with comedy, we wield it together.