Dear Sofia Vergara, Rape Is No Laughing Matter

Published November 23, 2009 @ 03:20PM PT

Yikes. When did making a joke about your son being a product of rape at age 13 become acceptable commentary for daytime television?

Actually, I'm pretty sure it's still not acceptable. But apparently Modern Family's Sofia Vergara, who made this exact joke on The View recently, thinks it is:

You can tell how shocked the hosts and audience of The View were after this statement. Clearly, rape is no laughing matter. It makes me wonder how Vergara ever thought that this comment would be not only funny, but something you should say on national television.

The bigger question comes down to this: Is this what Hollywood stars do these days -- make fun of rape victims? After the whole Roman Polanksi debacle, I suspect that many famous people live in a bubble where they don't realize the impact of rape on society.

Just in case any of these celebrities stumble over to Change.org, I have a few statistics I want to share from RAINN, the nation's largest anti-sexual assault organization:

Approximately 2/3 of rapes are committed by someone known to the victim

1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime (14.8% completed rape; 2.8% attempted rape).

17.7 million American women have been victims of attempted or completed rape.

9 of every 10 rape victims were female in 2003.

While about 80% of all victims are white, minorities are somewhat more likely to be attacked.

Rape and date rape are serious matters. No one should make rape a joke or try to get laughs at the expense of rape victims. Vergara should apologize publicly about her joke, and Modern Family should feature a rape narrative on the show to raise awareness.

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Comments (9)

WWW.FREESARAKRUZAN.ORG

Please support the Freedom of Sara Kruzan. Sara was sentenced to Life without Parole at 16 years old for killing her pimp, a man who groomed her into a life of prostitution by the age of 13.

Posted by Kim Deanne on 11/24/2009 @ 04:19AM PT
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My daughter and I pray for Sara Kruzan everyday and all the other girls out there like her. Our courts are pitiful. They certainy don't care about children.

Posted by K Linnemann on 11/24/2009 @ 09:57AM PT
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Thanks for posting this, Jen. Nothing about rape is funny and celebrities (or anyone else) should be ashamed of themselves for treating it so lightly. I found it interesting how there was a glaring absence of parents with daughters among the signers of that disgusting "free Roman Polanski" petition. It says something about how easily people can compartmentalize and/or ignore reality when it doesn't directly affect themselves.

On a sidenote, someone attempted to rape the high school girl I mentor this past weekend. Fortunately, she takes part in police explorers and was able to use defensive skills to incapacitate him before calling the police. But it still traumatized her, obviously. I worry a bit about what could happen when she goes off to college next year.

Posted by Rob F on 11/24/2009 @ 06:29AM PT
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Im glad she was able to fight back and its incidents like that, that illustrates the need to teach women from a young age how to defend themselves.

Posted by Reverend Boony on 11/24/2009 @ 01:32PM PT
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Yes indeed, Jen! I've been trying to advocate for victims on this site for a while. I've even used the same information from RAINN that you have posted here. The disturbing part is that there are bloggers on change.org and members of the site that continue to oppose me. You can find these discussions on the Homelessness and Criminal Justice pages. There is plenty of misinformation put forth about sex offenders, even level 3 sex offenders, on this website. How do you feel about your fellow bloggers advocating on behalf of dangerous, high risk, sex offense recidivists?

Posted by Dennis G. on 11/24/2009 @ 10:11AM PT
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What's sad is that the information we know may be worse because of the unreported cases.

Do these numbers take into account rape that happens in prison? Those studies are very interesting if you are interested in heternormativity and masculinity. Especially the studies on female prisons.

I agree that rape is no laughing matter. Is there any possibility that Sofia is just very disturbed by it that she had to let it out as a joke? Maybe she is still struggling with it, or felt compelled to explain why she had a kid at 13? Maybe the notion of "purity" and how she wasn't "pure" at 13 made her want to say: "hey, I'm no slut, I was raped"? I wonder.

Posted by Juan Portillo on 11/24/2009 @ 11:35AM PT
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I got the impression from miss vergara that she wasnt trying to make a joke so much as she was being honest about the circumstances of her becomming a young mother while clearly experiancing discomfort at having to say it on live Tv...

I do wonder why she didnt let the other ladies know about it up front ?

Posted by Reverend Boony on 11/24/2009 @ 01:35PM PT
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I didn't think she was joking either, but wikipedia tells me she was 20 when she gave birth to her son, so if that's true, then yes, the joke was inappropriate.

Posted by Anemone Cerridwen on 11/26/2009 @ 02:24PM PT
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I don't know what bothered me more-the joke about being raped at thirteen or Barbra's follow up question.

No matter what the intent was-I don't see rape as a laughing matter. No matter who the victim is or their age.

Posted by Deborah Latham-White on 11/27/2009 @ 04:17AM PT
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Author

Jen Nedeau is a social media consultant, progressive activist, feminist speaker and writer. She currently lives in New York City, where she works full-time as the Director of Digital Strategy at Air America Media. Additionally, Nedeau volunteers as the Chief Technology Officer for New Leaders Council, a non-profit that offers exclusive training for young leaders. You can follow her on Twitter @HumanFolly or learn more here: www.jennedeau.com.