I kissed her goodbye, said all beauty must die

[cyrano]

Some of you have seen my "When the pepper spray runs out can I have your number?" t-shirt. I don't know if that counts as a rape joke or not, but since I don't approach strange women, whether I'm wearing it or not, it hasn't played in to the Guide to approaching strange women without being maced factor yet.

Snagged from Sarah.

Comments

[amanda_lodden.livejournal.com]

See, I go the opposite way on this-- I would conclude that a random person is LESS likely to be a threat than the average random person. It's entirely possible that I'm just particularly broken, though, so here's the logic train I'm riding:

Person is wearing shirt -> Shirt is intended as humorous -> Person is being self-effacing -> Person has a sense of humility, which is difficult to maintain while also having the overblown ego necessary to believe that his desires trump mine -> Person is more likely to respect my boundaries.

[pusifoot.livejournal.com]

See, that's a totally valid path to take. The path I take is either:

Person is wearing shirt - > person is a clueless asshat who hasn't given any thought to the fact that a woman might have a valid reason for using mace -> not someone I want to deal with
-or-
Person is wearing shirt -> Person thinks that rape is something that can be joked about in order to diffuse how serious a problem it is -> person is likely to make light of rape when it comes up -> person is not someone I would be able to have a civil conversation with.
-or-
Person is wearing shirt -> person is so socially clueless that they might actually behave in that way.

That all said, when it's someone I know (like, say, our beloved cyranocyrano) then I go "Oh, that's clearly meant in jest".