A senator known for her feminist views posted on social media yesterday that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s supporters sent her rape threats after she released a statement denouncing his controversial rape joke.
Senator Risa Hontiveros posted on social media two screenshots from alleged Duterte supporters.
Hontiveros’ experience shows how toxic social media in the country has become, and how perverted and “loyal” some netizens are that they would threaten critics of the president.
She wrote: “After tweeting #RapeIsNotAJoke, the President’s supporters started throwing rape threats against me. Sad what has become part of our national conversation. Such is the power of rape jokes: they intimidate women, they embolden rapists.”
The nauseating comments were in reaction to Hontiveros’ social media post where she criticized Duterte for joking that Davao City has many rape cases due to its high number of beautiful women.
Hontiveros’ post, which appeared on Saturday, said: “President Duterte should stop blaming women and how we look and dress for the growing number of rape cases.
“Beauty doesn’t cause rape, rapists do. Rape is the fault of the rapist. It is very disturbing to see a President who makes jokes about rape.
“And to those who defend it by calling it a joke, and by telling us not to give it too much weight, I can assure you that no rape victim or survivor, no woman – since every woman is at risk in this rape culture – ever finds it funny.”
It’s a reasonable reaction to Duterte’s vile joke, but a few netizens thought it was unacceptable.
One of the threats she received read: “May you be raped over and over. [E]njoy!”
Another said: “There was a time in history that Risa asked to be raped. It was during the elite-orchestrated EDSA-2 fake revolution to oust the thief, [former president] Erap Estrada. There was a long march with throngs of crowd with streamers and chants. Risa marched along making noises to attract attention!”
After Hontiveros denounced these attacks, on Twitter, another account sent her a rape threat. It was in Filipino which went: “It’s because you’re such an attention-seeker… you’re making a big deal out of a rape joke. Hope you get raped you animal who happens to be a senator!”
MASYADO KA KASING EPAL…JOKE RAPE lang pinapalaki mo pa. MA RAPE KA SANA HAYOP KA NA SENADORA!
— maria florencia (@mariafl48706026) September 2, 2018
Rape is not something to be joked about, least of all by the president of the country. The crime is an act used by men to disempower women — something that these netizens can’t seem to comprehend.
Another netizen on Twitter named @tawwakalna didn’t threaten Hontiveros, but it’s worth mentioning it here because it shows how some people misunderstand what causes rape.
He wrote in Filipino: “Before a woman is raped, several factors come into play. What she wears, how flirtatious she is, how pretty she is, and above all how much the suspect watches porn movies. When a lusty person sees the flesh of a woman, that’s when he will think of comitting rape, especially now that woman are practically naked.”
Bago paman ma rape ang babae dadaan muna sa ilang kadahilanan. KASUOTAN, KALANDIAN, KAGANDAHAN, AT HIGIT SA LAHAT MGA NAPAPANOOD NA PORN MOVIES, pagnakita na taong hayok sa laman ang babae staka sya nakakaisip mangrape lalot ang kasuotan ng babae sa ngayon ay halos naka hubo na.
— Mikael Ahmad (@tawwakalna) September 1, 2018
This is an example of victim blaming which, unfortunately, is very common in the Philippines. Modest clothing does not protect anyone from rape; sexy clothes are not a call to be raped.
Also, there is such a thing as consent — just because a woman is “flirtatious” does not mean she wants to be assaulted.
Majority of Hontiveros’ supporters came out in support of her in light of these attacks. Grace Samaniego encouraged her to report them to the National Bureau of Investigation.
She wrote: “Let’s see if they won’t collapse out of the anxiety.”
Wrote Jurezah Borja: “There are many more topics to joke about and rape is definitely and certainly not one of those.”
Wrote Riza Mendoza: “Despicable. This just shows how the president’s ‘jokes’ is (sic) making rape culture much more normalized in our society. Instead of condemning, these fanatics are just strengthening his disgusting rhetoric. Misogynist morons the lot of them.”
Do you think Twitter and Facebook are doing enough to prevent behavior like this from appearing online? Let us know your thoughts by tweeting to @CoconutsManila.
