From Steubenville to Serena - when did rape stop being so horrifying?

Recently in the news, and on social media in particular I've started a notice a nasty little trend cropping up time and time again, that rape just isn't so horrifying anymore.

Let me be clear, I'm not saying that people think it's a-ok to rape, far from it, but that there seems to be an underlying feeling that in certain circles it seems to be an after thought, not a problem, and that there's even an opportunity for profit from it.

And I've never felt sicker.

It kicked off for me today when I noticed there was a lot of people on my Twitter feed, retweeting about a Kickstarter campaign for a guy's book on how to pick up women becoming a reality.

On the surface it seemed pretty fucking harmless. What else is new? A guy that seemingly has all the answers on how to pick up fit women in bars and clubs? What average Joe wouldn't want to know that? Then there's some of the passages I read, however. They left me feeling horrified. Since this morning, these passages on reddit seem to be temporarily down (weird eh?). However, here are some of those passages transcribed (taken from this blog post):

”5) Get CLOSE to her, damn it!

To quote Rob Judge, “Personal space is for pussies.” I already told you that the most successful seducers are those who can’t keep their hands off of women. Well you’re not gonna be able to do that if you aren’t in close! ”
“All the greatest seducers in history could not keep their hands off of women. They aggressively escalated physically with every woman they were flirting with. They began touching them immediately, kept great body language and eye contact, and were shameless in their physicality. Even when a girl rejects your advances, she KNOWS that you desire her. That’s hot. It arouses her physically and psychologically.”
“Decide that you’re going to sit in a position where you can rub her leg and back. Physically pick her up and sit her on your lap. Don’t ask for permission. Be dominant. Force her to rebuff your advances.”
“Sex
Pull out your cock and put her hand on it. Remember, she is letting you do this because you have established yourself as a LEADER. Don’t ask for permission, GRAB HER HAND, and put it right on your dick.”

Charming, eh? Even if I did posses the ability to have groups of women flock to me, I wouldn't fucking dare do either of those to a woman, because a) forcing women to sit on your lap is just wrong and b) forcing women's hands on to your dick is just a smidge wronger.

He's not the only one though trying to earn some money. Remember those t-shirts which were being sold on Amazon earlier this year? In the 'keep calm and carry on' style? Keep Calm And Just Rape Them? Those hilarious t-shirts which only set you back a tenner? God they were dead funny those, weren't they?

About as funny as they were trendy, to be honest. If I was a woman and saw a lad wearing one of them I'd be thinking, 'Keep Calm And Crack Him In The Bollocks'. They've been taken down, thank god. Still makes you wonder, who thought those were a good product to sell?

The shameful thing is there seems to be a few in society who think rape really isn't that big of a deal. Earlier this year, in Steubenville, Ohio in America, a girl was raped at a house party by two college football players. They were convicted and sentenced to prison time. However the reactions from some however was beyond the pale. CNN's attitude seemed to give no sympathy towards the victim, but a bit of sympathy towards the convicted rapists.

Seriously, who gives a crap about the lasting effect on them? They're rapists! Who cares about the tags they're gonna have to live with? They made their choice when they did what they did.

A sad amount of tweets from the general public in the aftermath of the verdict are a depressing read. I don't know about you, but when I go to a house party I fully expect to get smashed (guilty, as charged), but I don't ever really expect to get raped. Society wouldn't expect me to either, they'd be horrified if it happened to me, a man. So why don't women get the same treatment?

To be honest it doesn't help when you've got strong, technically-gifted, female sports-stars saying that she "shouldn't have put herself in that position". It beggars belief.

The final thing that got to me is a campaign which a friend I follow on Twitter posted a couple of days ago. About blocking the access to 'rape pornography' sites. Now to be honest, I've visited 4chan (once and only once), I've seen the dark depths the internet, but I am still genuinely amazed that these are a thing. Now don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against pornography ('A single lad likes porn?! Shocking!' said nobody, ever), but this is beyond twisted. This stuff needs to be banned. Pornography is brilliant. Rape porn however is not. It's sad that I'm even having to type that.

So what's the point of all this then you may ask? Well it just seems to me that it's horrifically wrong that we as a society seem to give less and less of a shit about rape and its culture as a whole. When did this start being ok? You can't obviosly stop this from happening but we as a society can say that it's not fucking cool, and it's not fucking okay for certain cretinous dicks on the internet making some dollar off it.

Go to the bottom of the Kickstarter page and get this project killed off: 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tofutofu/above-the-game-a-guide-to-getting-awesome-with-wom?ref=live

And the link to that petition to get get rape porn sites blocked here in blighty:

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/close-the-rape-pornography-loophole

Hidden Items & Rare Gems - TV shows you've heard of but haven't watched #1 The Shield

I'm starting a new series today of blogs about TV shows that, as my title says, you've heard of but haven't actually got round to watching yet. Imagine it as a sort of hidden treasures archive that needs to be plundered a bit more. These are the shows which probably haven't been given the recognition they deserve, or they have but you've seen them advertised and thought "Oh aye I need to watch that at some point". Well the time is now folks. No more putting it off. You're going to start now and you will enjoy it. 


Well, hopefully.


This week I'm going to start out with the criminally underrated: The Shield


Imagine a world where lines between the police and crooks are blurred. Where cops aren't just dirty, they're filthier than Paris Hilton's last conquest. Where not necessarily making the ethical choice is the right choice. Where there is violence, drug running and prostitution running amok. Welcome to Farmington ladies and gentlemen, a fictional, but altogether very realistic part of downtown Los Angeles, the setting of the FX cop drama The Shield. It's brutal, unflinchingly violent, but altogether quality television and very realistic.


The Shield centres around main protaganist Vic Mackay, played immaculately by Ross Kemp look-a-like Michael Chiklis. He's in a specialised task force within the L.A.P.D known as The Strike Team, a force which specialises in tackling gang-crime, and not necessarily by the book. This team will do anything to get results. From the pilot it's clearly established that everyone who works in 'The Barn' (the nickname for the police station where cops in the Farmington district work) are suspicious of Vic and his team's way of dealing with the city's bad guys. These methods include planting evidence on suspects, running protection rackets on drug dealers, and stealing evidence just to name a few. These cops are no role models. The series revolves around The Strike Team's many misdeeds and how far they can go before they are exposed to their other colleagues.


And this is the beauty of The Shield, because even with all the negative character traits that I've just mentioned, they are all likeable characters in a likeable show. They do what they do so they can support their families into retirement age. They ultimately feel like real people. The show begs the question of the viewer, could you handle a corrupt cop if they got more criminals off the street? It's testament to the show's brilliant creator and head writer, Shawn Ryan, and second writer Kurt Sutter. They write anti-hero to a tee, and create such true empathy in such complex characters that it deserves to be applauded. 


Speaking of other characters, there are great characters throughout The Shield. This is not simply a one-man show. The Shield has one of the finest supporting casts in any TV show I've ever seen. The greatest example of this is Vic's right hand man and best friend Det. Shane Vendrell, played by the amazing Walton Goggins. Shane is one of the most believable characters I've ever seen committed to tape. He's a misogynist, a racist, and deep down, a very scared, troubled human being. Even though on paper he's a despicable character, he doesn't feel like a magnet for hatred like you would perhaps expect. The reason he's so good is because he just seems real. 


The show is filled with other great characters. The Barn's head honcho, Captain Aceveda played by Beito Martinez is another example. Aceveda so driven in his rivalry to take down Vic he begins to incorporate Vic's own dirty ways to further himself up the career ladder and to wipe out Vic. Also worth noting is Detective Dutch Wagenbach. Dutch is an archetypal loser, but with a police badge to boot. His obsession with being liked and famous for his work is funny and tragic to watch. Then there are The Shield's amazing guest stars. There's too many that I can be bothered to list here (I'm only one man), so I'll centre on the amazing Forest Whitaker. He plays Internal Affairs officer Lieutenant John Kavanaugh, whose sole mission is to bring down The Strike Team. The way the writers have portrayed him as an Ishmael-like character from Moby Dick, a man so hell-bent on capturing his own white whale in Vic Mackay, is a tour-de-force. It's easy to see from his portrayal of this character why Mr. Whitaker has got an Oscar to his name .


The Shield in my opinion is one of the greatest television shows ever made. It deserves to be mentioned in the same company as The Sopranos as one of the most critically acclaimed television shows ever made. The Wire is frequently mentioned as the greatest police drama ever made, I fully believe The Shield deserves that claim. It my not have won that many awards, but it really is THAT good that it doesn't matter. All 7 seasons are available on DVD, get it rented/bought/downloaded now. It'd be a crime not to.

I'm gonna live my life by the stars that shine/Tonight I'm a rock n' roll star

Right, that's it. It has to stop now. I've had enough. This is driving me up the wall and I want it to end.

I'm sick to fucking death of people being so bloody cynical and miserable all the time. Recently I've just noticed that nobody seems to get psyched about anything anymore. Don't get me wrong, I've been like that many a time, but I don't let it rule my life, like it seems to with so many people. Sometimes it's just over big things, sometimes it's over every. Little. Piece. Of. Their. Lives. And it bugs me. I want people to be happy for once instead of being miserale gits all the time.

Take for example last night. I went to this horror-themed adventure-type park-thing where my friend works. He got us in for free, and on paper some parts sounded a bit lame but I went with it thinking, 'I hope I get scared tonight'. I wanted to be had. The same couldn't be said for everyone at the park though. Some iron-willed teenagers thought they were too good for the park, and that it was stupid and that there was zero point to it. Throughout some of the attractions, which were all like mini haunted houses with different themes, we had to be in single file and got let in two groups of friends at a time or so. Throughout this horror maze this 15 year-old in front of me, who can only be described with his 'wit', as a cross between a smug bell-end and Justin Bieber, was giving everyone a running commentary on the place. WAIT? THEY'RE NOT ACTUAL ZOMBIES IN THERE BELL-END BIEBER?! IT'S ALL MAKE-UP? I HAD NO IDEA THAT THERE WASN'T ACTUALLY A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! I HONESTLY THOUGHT THAT WAS REAL BLOOD ON THE WALLS!

I just wanted to grab him and say for gods sake just go with it you bloody idiot, and use your imagination. (Seriously, where are the West's when you need them?)

Hell to him, I enjoyed myself.

Another thing got me ditching the cynicism this week I must admit. It was my birthday on Tuesday (23, thanks for asking) and I had work the next day. I could've bailed on not doing anything because it was a work night but instead I thought fuck it. I'm enjoying this and to hell with the consequences. My job sucks so who cares? (Before you begin with "Aren't you defeating your point by being miserable? *smug face*", I said ALL the time, I'm not concerned if you want to be pissed off from time to time). Anyways, the night out, yes. I went out, got very drunk. Woke up the next day, slept through my alarm and lost my phone. Panicking (it's a Galaxy Ace!), I searched my room. Not on my dresser. Not in my jeans. Not on my chest of drawers. Nowhere. Bricks were shat. What the hell do I do? So in a last ditch attempt, I went to put on my slippers to venture around the house and outside, and alas felt something in the right one. 

Yep, my phone was in my slipper. 

Work was rung, telling them the truth of what happened. I figured I was going to have my arse handed to me the next day. But I didn't. I got away with it scot-free. No warnings. No disciplinary. Nothing. I smiled a little bit inside and out. And I'd do it again ten times over. Maybe minus that 6th shot of Sambuca (I swear that's when you go from drunk to Charlie Sheen. 5 is fine, 6 is Sheen, remember that).

My point of this blog is to ditch your cynical side for once, and go have a great time instead. Next time it's your birthday on a week night, go celebrate. Next time you hate the world, remember it's not all bad, Malcolm In The Middle is still on TV.

Just check your slippers first, you may find something awesome in there.

Bang! Bang! Shouty Car! Whir! Whir! Or why video games have actually grown up and are now well written like TV and films

Despite what my title says, I actually do believe video games have gained an artistic edge which puts them on par with cinema and TV. Honestly, just stick with me. I have proof and everything.

Years ago, in an age before Amy Childs and Geordie Shore, video games were reserved for people in pubs lining up to have a go at eating chasing ghosts, or battling evil aliens invading from space, and not a lot else. Then games got a bit better, and involved a lot of jumping like this. And if you were cool and liked small, blue, woodland creatures #winning then like THIS. Slightly better plots, but not much better. With these types of games coming out they inevitably gained a different audience, specifically male kids and teenagers. Developers seemed to grasp on to this knowledge and started to continue to not offer much in the sense of story telling, and started to exclusively cater to teen boys who wanted brain-candy. Specifically, violent brain candy. We got Mortal Kombat, Streets of Rage, Killer Instinct and Doom just to name a few in this genre. All very nasty and all bloody good fun, but didn't exactly have a story to tell. However, in 1997 the grand-daddy of all violent and totally catered-for-teens games was released. Rockstars infamous Grand Theft Auto. It had cars, guns, violence and money. A lot of very mindless fun, but not a lot else. I honestly couldn't tell you the plot because I don't think it really had one, but teens loved it. Unsurprisingly it attracted a wealth of controversy. Newsnight berated it, The Daily Mail condemned it as more evil than New Labour, and parents were outraged by it. Yet it still sold bucketloads. It was with this that the general, non-video game playing public decided to dismiss games as for teenagers who stay in too much and maturbate too often. And for years, video games were perceived as that. Video games had grown up by dumbing down, lost in a world of shooting stuff because you could.

But now I believe that's changed...

Don't get me wrong, there are a TON of video games out right now which are dumb, go bang bang and involve lots of violence, many of which I enjoy. But what I mean by change is in the quality of writing. Games now try to tell a story, albeit usually with violence, but an intelligent story at that. Take for example Grand Theft Auto circa 1997 and GTA IV from 2008. Both at the crux, involve you playing as an anti-hero rising up through the criminal world, committing acts of violence and serious crime to make it to the top. However, the difference in story between the two is gargantuan. GTA '97 was a game that at its crux was 'bang bang shooty whir whir' with sod all in the sense of a script. GTA IV however told a black-as-night satirical tale on the crime genre of an immigrant trying to snatch the American dream. GTA IV was well written. It actually made you want to watch the cut-scenes because they were not only funny as hell, but genuinely had you captivated, because unlike this blog they were WELL-WRITTEN. Obviously, some people just bought it because, *adopts thick, chavvy accent* 'You shag prozzies and you've got a gun and shit mate' missing the point entirely. But they're probably still in their bedroom's nursing a chronic masturbation problem.

Scripts in games have improved a million-fold since the dunderhead PS1 years. Rockstar's other titles Red Dead Redemption and L.A Noire have proved this. Red Dead redemption told the tale of an old outlaw who is blackmailed by the US government into hunting down and killing his old gang buddies, or they'll take away his family. The game makes you give a shit about lead character John Marston because he says and does things that you would expect a man would do in his predicament. The way he develops over the course of the game's 20 or so hours, is natural and real. The ending SPOILER ALERT of you facing off against the US Marshalls, who after giving you back your family, screw you over by coming to kill you is so damn heart-breaking, you can't help but well up. As you stand there, 1 vs 50 with just six bullets and are told to fight, giving you that glimmer of hope that you can get out of this, just to have it dashed as you are killed in a hail of bullets is writing that is equally on par with something on the big screen or TV. I honestly believe HBO could make a series out of the Red Dead Redemption source material.

Red Dead Redemption isn't the only one. The aforementioned L.A Noire tells the tale of a hardened WWII veteran Cole Phelps who becomes one of LAPD's finest in the 1940's. The way the game highlights his over-bookishness as a counter-balance to his torment over his conduct during the war is inspired. And again, something which could easily be translated to a film script. Furthermore, like most good films, the game made you think. You need wits in this game, the ability to figure things out, to think like a real detective. Brain Candy this ain't, but it's all the better for it.

Now all those detractors that say "But what about all those other dumb games?! The bang bang ones? They can't be as smart as TV or film!" I say this, have you ever watched the BAFTA award-winning (yes, for real) 'The Only Way Is Essex'? Has that ever intellectually nourished you? No, because it's not meant to. Just like Mortal Kombat isn't meant to improve your life. It's meant to distract you for half an hour while you forget about the evils of taxes, that 7am start tomorrow and Justin Bieber. There's certain TV and films that are just their to entertain and nothing more, as there are films which make you think and are clever and genuinely world changing. Just like there are smart as hell games...

...and ones that go bang bang shouty car whir whir.