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When it comes right down to it.....we have a tendency to make the most awful aspects of our world a source of humour. Does that negate the awfulness of the subject? In some cases yes....in other cases no.
I don't think a person who makes a joke about rape plays their hand as someone who doesn't see the seriousness of the crime. That said, someone who does not see the serious nature of rape will most likely find it an easier source of humour than someone who does.
As for the proposal on changes to the law; I think its about time. We are convicting fewer not more rapists in the UK. The treatment of female victims by the courts has not changed significantly in thirty years, resulting in far more women pulling out of the case than following it through. If a woman has been so drunk that she cannot remember consenting(or has had her drink spiked with something to mimic that effect),there is an assumption of consent. The difficulty comes in when women make false claims against a man. This does happen; however, given the hoops that have to be jumped through; given that rape is one of the most difficult crimes to successfully prosecute and given the character assassination any female victim is subjected to, it is likely that such false-claims represent a very small percentage of rape charges brought against (mainly) men.
Currently, we have a justice system which is more concerned with protecting small numbers of men from false charge, than it is with prosecuting greater numbers of actual rape.
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