Comedy delegitimizes struggles of domestic violence victims
Snapchat pays for insensitive advertisement
April 25, 2018
Last month, an advertisement for a ‘Would You Rather’ mobile app was displayed on Snapchat asking if one would rather ‘punch Chris Brown’ or ‘slap Rihanna.’ Users were understandably disturbed by the advertisement, which prompted Snapchat to remove it. However, this was not before significant damage was done.
In response, Rihanna posted a Snapchat Story voicing her disappointment with Snapchat’s acceptance of the advertisement. However, her message was not one of self pity. The singer used the situation as an opportunity to talk about the way in which Snapchat took the issue of domestic violence as a matter to be joked about and the way in which our society as a whole is unwilling to take domestic violence seriously.
According to Vanity Fair, Rihanna’s public shaming of Snapchat caused the corporation’s stock to drop nearly 800 million dollars. However, the corporation’s financial loss is peanuts compared to the irreparable damage they have done to users who have been victims of domestic violence. By choosing to publish this advertisement, they have contributed to the spread of domestic violence in the United States and proclaimed that they see no great danger in making comedic remarks regarding such criminal behavior.
According to CNN, there are 10 million victims of domestic violence in the United States each year, a number that continues to increase with each passing year. One aspect of our culture that helps to perpetuate the occurrence of domestic crimes is our inability to see domestic violence as a legitimate crime. In Minnesota, in 2013, 80 percent of domestic violence cases were never reported to law enforcement.
Undoubtedly, things like the Snapchat advertisement as well as the countless twitter memes making light of the Chris Brown and Rihanna’s domestic abuse case cause domestic violence incidents to be taken less seriously. Thus, in order to reduce the number of domestic violence cases each year as well as legitimize the struggles of victims of domestic violence, we must cease to joke about it. A simple laugh or double tap is meaningless in the scope of the serious emotional trauma jokes about domestic violence inflict upon its victims.
