Barbara Ellen comment on over use of term Rape

[WoTmania]

here
Good article I think.

[EllaDee]

Thanks, good article.

But depressing comments as always.

[WoTmania]

I didn't read the comments. You do realise I will feel complelled to now.

[WoTmania]

i read the comments

[EllaDee]

Oh, sorry!

No, I didn't mean to make you feel you had to read them. They do make me want to tear my hair out though.

[franke]

Good article but I can't face reading the comments. Can I just be a leetle pedantic? In the final paragraph she writes: "It's clear that neither Holmes, Depp or Ms Stewart would have intended any harm....". Why the Ms?

[KellyKettle]

I glanced at the comments. Like leaving a wallet in your back pocket. FFS.

[WoTmania]

No it wasn't that you made me feel I shoudl read them. More a morbid curiosity.

[WoTmania]

KellyKettle - hadn't noticed that

[WoTmania]

the Ms thing

[giyadas]

I liked this comment by Red Scot, "The wilfully blind leading the blind by ignorance here, methinks".
Sums up perfectly the majority of cif commenters.

[messyisthenewtidy]

On a brighter note there are a couple of good comments. I love this one by gherkin girl

" Stop comparing human beings to wallets. As Wanda Sykes says, I can't detach my vagina when I'm out doing things."

I'm adding that one to my repertoire!

[JLK2]

Words change their meaning over time. Rape didn't always specifically mean a sexual act. It could just mean the conquering of a city.

It also refers to a crop.

[EllaDee]

messy - that is indeed a brilliant comment!

JLK2 - Etymologically, I doubt oil-seed rape is anything related, is it?

As to what rape means ... yes, words do change their meaning. But this is not what's going on here. When 'rape' used to mean simply 'take by force', yes, it'd make sense to refer to the rape of a city, or to the rape of a woman. You note that in both cases, the thing taken is just that - a thing. This does say something about those societies' view of rape, and I for one am glad that it has been quite some time since we spoke Latin.

OTOH, when people say things like 'OMG, I've been fraped again', they are mostly not returning to Latinate usage. I doubt many of them are aware of it. Instead, they're using rape in a metaphorical sense to mean 'something slightly unpleasant and intrusive of my privacy'. The problem with that is that the word isn't changing its meaning - no-one has become confused by newspaper reports of a man being convincted of rape and thought 'now, was that about myspace or what? Instead, the metaphor implies there's a resemblance between raping a person and intruding on private space. And there isn't.

[JLK2]

Well clearly some people think there is, or they wouldn't say it.

As much as some poeple might want to, the government, or any other force, cannot control the way that people use language.

[SinicalSal]

well some people are wrong, then, , wouldn't be unheard of.

when it's pointed out to them, they can reconsider their usage.

Not hard.

[EllaDee]

'Well clearly some people think there is, or they wouldn't say it.'

Sorry, this is entirely my fault, but I don't follow. Some people think there is what?

No-one thinks 'rape' means accessing another person's facebook account, so that's obviously metaphorical. Is there some situation where the word has actually changed its meaning, as opposed to being used as an (offensive) metaphor, and if so, could you cite it?

If that's not what you're getting at, apologies, I wasn't sure.