With summer quickly approaching, music is in the air. A massive popular form of entertainment for young and old alike are music festivals like Bonnaro, South by Southwest, Hangout Fest, Warped Tour and Coachella, just to name a few. Excluding age limits, people from all ages gather for these multiple day fests to engage with worldly cultures and chill with bands from all over. Unfortunately, with large groupings of people comes a variety of humor and understanding of right and wrong. 

This past weekend in Indio, CA, a mass culture of over 550,000 people gathered for the first weekend of Coachella.  Among these thousands of people was a man who decided to share his idea of  an acceptable daily routine with the world. Reading “EAT SLEEP RAPE REPEAT,” an anonymous Coachella goer’s shirt caught the attention of many.  Managing editor for Vice music’s electronic music site THUMP snapped a photo of this man for a tweet saying, “This guy earns the award for worst fashion/lifestyle choices    @coachella. I’m not easy to offend, but this is shitty.” After the tweet was sent out, the twitter community was quick to share in the disgust of this offensive clothing.

The phrase comes from well-known rape scene actor, Ranjeet when he  tweeted the phrase last year.

Here is my problem, when in the world did it become okay for someone to view rape as a common and accepted occurrence? Don’t get me wrong, the massive disgust shown for this man’s attire gives me hope that not all people are comfortable with blatant acts of stupidity, but this shows just how submerged we as the human race are in a rape culture. Women are viewed as objects to look at and do with as one pleases. 

In today’s society, everyone is so quick to ask the wrong questions. Instead of placing blame on the perpetrator, we make excuses and point the finger at the survivor. Questions include things like “What was she wearing?” and “Why was she out so late?” When did it become a woman’s fault that she was sexually assaulted because her skirt, heaven forbid, showed two inches of her thigh? This may seem like a separate topic completely, but the point I am trying to make is that t-shirts like the one in question are factors in the victimization of rape and sexual assault survivors. 

As a society, we need to stand up and say NO to victim blaming and the loose use of the word rape. No, you will never “rape a test” or “rape a basketball goal.” Rape has never and will never be something that should be taken lightly or joked about. Its our job as human beings to encourage others to educate themselves on rape culture and the common everyday ways we participate in it. 

This t-shirt may not break any laws, but it does something much greater. This shirt breaks the severity of rape. Rape is a serious term that should never be used as a funny or attractive appeal for merchandise.