Gross

[Content Note: Rape culture; violence.]

1. I fucking hate Law & Order: SVU. I hate the way it purports to be a show that condemns sexual violence, yet continually reinforces rape culture tropes with dramatic reversals that contradict everything we know to be true about sexual violence. If everything you knew about rape had been learned by watching L&O:SVU, you'd believe that women and girls lie about sexual violence at an alarming rate, that most rapes are committed by strangers, and that about half of all sex crimes are committed by women.

2. I fucking hate the entertainment industry's rehabilitation of Mike Tyson. (By which I mean the rehabilitation of his reputation, because HA HA let us never even mention the crime of which he was convicted or ask him to reflect upon it in any way.) Tyson is a convicted rapist, an abuser of at least one spouse, and a person who seriously assaulted a man in a professional setting, when he bit off part of Evander Holyfield's ear during a boxing match. But, like fellow violent misogynist Charlie Sheen, there are seemingly unlimited opportunities for Tyson to maintain his wealth and fame.

So you can imagine how thrilled, ahem, I was to hear that Mike Tyson has been cast in an upcoming episode of L&O:SVU:

In his TV acting debut, former boxer Mike Tyson is going for some dark, dramatic stuff with a guest starring role on NBC's Law & Order: SVU. He will play Reggie Rhodes, a murderer on death row whose violent actions may in part be the byproduct of a horrible childhood.

HA HA I hope this puts paid the execrable lie that L&O:SVU is not, in fact, remotely concerned with anti-rape advocacy. You don't get to claim to be anti-rape when you're giving a fat paycheck to a convicted rapist to be a guest star. Sorry.

I will never get over this idea that a creep who is rich and famous deserves to be rich and famous once again, once zie's "paid hir dues," and that taking issue with idolizing people convicted of violent abuse is tantamount to saying they don't deserve a second chance at life.

Sure, Mike Tyson deserves the opportunity to make a life for himself. I'm just not convinced it has to be a life in which he regains his fame and fortune.

If you're rich and famous, it appears you can be wicked enough to be sent to prison, but not so wicked as to be sent to the working class. I have a problem with that.