This is not a happy post.
I was spending a little time on the fire-hydrant stream of Twitter, as one does, some days. And someone shared a link to a five-minute game, and the post-mortem of same.
The game is called The Day The Laughter Stopped.
It is not a happy game. It is not an unrealistic game.
In the more detailed discussion from the game creator, they also link to an article by someone I wasn’t familiar with, who writes as Film Crit Hulk. (There are many Hulks online! They often talk in ALLCAPS and refer to themselves in the third person. E.g.: “HULK’S SAYS IT ALL THE TIME, BUT THE PROBLEM WITH PLAYING DEVIL’S ADVOCATE IS THAT YOU’RE ACTUALLY ADVOCATING THE DEVIL.” (The post-mortem also contains a link to http://convertcase.net/, where you can copy and paste the article in question and then change it out of ALLCAPS, if you are annoyed by the prospect of someone internet-shouting at you for the entire length of an article.)
Seriously. The holiday season is upon us. There is stress and hope for kindness and many things to get done and many people being rushed. It is okay to not read the rest of this. .
The article in question is called “We need to change how we talk about rape”.
It is split into sections. In section four, the author talks about how they volunteered at a rape crisis centre. They outline how often the targets came in alone, how often they wanted to speak to a counsellor alone. And then they say this:
HULK THINKS ABOUT IT ALL THE TIME TO THIS VERY DAY. THE STORIES. THEY STAY WITH YOU. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT WAS ONE PHRASE THAT HULK KEPT HEARING FROM THESE YOUNG WOMEN AGAIN AND AGAIN? THE ONE PHRASE THAT JUST KEPT POPPING UP?
“My dad is going to kill me.”
I believe I actually stopped thinking for a moment when I read that. I believe it. It’s entirely plausible. It just…
Jesus Christ.
I believe I’m thinking now (and I finished reading the article, and while I think it has problems (I specifically need some time to break down what I think is a fairly cis-centric view) I think it is a good article and worth reading). But I think I’m stepping away from the internet tonight.