The Internet as Spectator Disclosure: Consent, Community, and Responsibility in Patricia Lockwood’s Viral Poem “Rape Joke”

Abstract

In “Rape as Spectator Sport and Creepshot Entertainment: Social Media and the Valorization of Lack of Consent,” the American philosopher Kelly Oliver provides a compelling and chilling analysis of the use and impact of social media by perpetrators of or bystanders to sexual assault. Patricia Lockwood’s 2013 long-form narrative poem, “Rape Joke,” which was published online and went viral on social media, offers a complement to Oliver’s analysis by presenting an Internet account of sexual assault from the survivor’s perspective. “Rape Joke,” through its content and form, raises questions to which we must philosophically and socially respond. These include both the importance of first-person narratives for social and philosophical engagements with trauma as well as the use of humor to constitute moral community and shape moral accountability.

Keywords

• Feminist Ethics
• Humor
• Rape Culture
• social media