Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho novel is chock-full of casual rape references and some absolutely disturbing examples of violence towards women. Why, if we ban RapeLay, sure we should ban A Clockwork Orange once again, due to the callous nature of Alex de Large’s rape scene. Surely Usher, a man writing for a predominantly movie-based Web site, can see that banning videogames or films just because some people find them offensive is wrong, and a dangerous slippery slope. It’s a beautiful system, and one I will support, even as a non-American, until the day I die. It means that Phelps has a right to express his own personal opinion, and everybody else has the right to express theirs right back at him. That does not mean that the American government approves or agrees with what he’s saying.

However, the American government allows him to say these things. He has said outrageously bigoted and offensive things about homosexuals, about other religions, and about soldiers who have died in the Iraq war. America has granted free speech to its citizens, but does that mean it condones the things that people say as a result of it? Of course not.įred Phelps is a perfect example.

It’s a glorious thing - often misinterpreted and misused by Americans - that protects the right of any individual to say what they want, provided they’re not causing direct harm to others. Take, for example, America’s precious freedom of speech. My creed has always been that if it harms nobody, one should be able to do what they like, ingest what they like, say what they like. The freedom to do something, whether people approve of it or not. This is what the RapeLay argument is all about. I wonder if William Usher would consider A Clockwork Orange‘s acceptance as a victory for freedom of expression, or society condoning rape and “a bit of the old ultra violence.” So disturbing were the scenes in A Clockwork Orange, in fact, that Stanley Kubrick’s film was banned for many years before finally seeing the legal light of day. The scenes in which he and his Droogs break into a married couple’s home and rape the man’s wife in front of him is a disturbing scene. The fact that Alex de Large from A Clockwork Orange happens to be a rapist makes him a truly irredeemable character to me. The point of all this is to establish that I am not a fan of rape, even in a fictional setting. If he was, I doubt many women would find him quite so charming. Of course, it’s never implied he’s a rapist. Hannibal Lecter, a serial killer, is considered suave and charming, becoming an archetypal villain and an almost lovable figure. At least in terms of fiction, I can agree with that. It is one of the most vile acts one can consider, and many people in the West seem to place it above murder in terms of how evil the act is.

Rapelay game over