"You're Stupid" "No, You're Stupid": The Never Ending Rivalry Within Comment Threads

Rape culture without a doubt is a sensitive subject with many people across the globe, so when it makes national, and even international headlines, it is clear that such a culture truly exists.

During our lecture Wednesday, I read an article entitled "About Those Banners at Old Dominion" by Adrienne Lafrance. The article discussed how a fraternity chapter hung up banners on their house that read things like "Drop your freshman daughters off here" and "And while you're at it, drop of mom too" (for exact wording, refer to article above). When I first heard about the incident, I laughed. It was the type of laugh that would happen when you witness someone running into a wall. (You immediately proceed to feel bad.) After the initial reaction, I began to feel slightly disgusted by the banners. After all, I am also a freshman at a University, and if I saw signs like that on the fraternity houses on my campus, I know I would be uncomfortable walking past them.

Those boys (hopefully) probably just wanted to make a joke; however, they were condoning inappropriate sexual advances towards women. While you may agree or disagree with my views, it is important to ask yourself: Would you feel comfortable with your daughter walking past those houses?

http://www.memecenter.com/fun/94738/Its-Time-To-Stop-Posting

The picture above is how I felt towards certain individuals commenting. As expected, there were some people that agreed with the author's view on the subject, and those that did not. The comments were for the most part respectful; however, there were those that were distasteful and plain out rude (hence the meme above). Anybody can write comments under the article, and their intended audiences are either other commenters, the author of the article, or anybody that is reading the article. Their purpose is to voice their opinion on the matter, and/or address others that either agree or disagree with their views on the controversy of rape culture.

The are two sides represented in the fears and anxieties of the comments. One of them is the fear of the rape culture in today's society, while other commentators fear that this story "doesn't merit international attention" (comment made by Blogvader). This shows the values of various commenters, they either value this as a true example of rape culture, or as a meaningless article on fraternity shenanigans.

The people that seemed most reasonable in the comments section were those that were polite and respectfully stated their opinions without attacking anybody else's, whereas those that made threats, angrily attacked other's views, and called each other stupid lacked credibility and trustworthiness.

Finally, the comments did not affect my assessment on the validity of the article's argument. I tend to be indifferent towards comments, I just acknowledge their remarks, but still hold my opinion on the subject. This is not true for everyone though, as how one reacts to this article and the comments truly depends on their view of rape culture, and whether or not it truly exists.