The Rape Sloth meme and the Perpetuation of Rape Culture

The world of Memes can provide us with witty humor, satire, and comedic relief from
everyday life. With all the harmless and entertaining memes out there, such as the ever-popular
Grumpy Cat, there are many still that can come off as more hurtful than humorous through
their perpetuation of stereotypes and harmful rhetoric. A
prime example of this would be the meme, Rape Sloth,
which was generated after an image of a model from a
2010 calendar shoot was posted to a forum on
Bodybuilding.com. The image consisted of a nude model
posing with a sloth that viewers agreed appeared to be
creepily whispering in her ear. The creation and the
increasing popularity of the Rape Sloth meme not only
perpetuates rape culture in an online format, but the
humor found in the meme also exposes a deeply rooted
culture of disrespect towards women in a patriarchal
society.
Over the next ten months, the thread accumulated over 230 variations and gained over
56,000 views. Memes were created from the photo and altered to make it appear as though the
sloth was whispering overt sexual and rape references into the models ear. Many startling
variations came out and garnered incredible attention with text such as, You better stay quiet
you slut, PsstYou gonna get raped, and Go ahead call the copsThey cant unrape you.
Rape Sloth quickly expanded to other social media networks and has come to have multiple
Twitter accounts with thousands of followers as well as a Facebook page, that latter of which

received upwards of 1,100 likes in just a month after its creation. However its Facebook page
was taken down by administrators, and if a user tries to search for Rape Sloth in the Facebook
search bar, no results will appear due to censorship.
The humor found behind the Rape Sloth memes
works to mitigate the reality of violence against
woman. Examples such as, You know what rhymes
with slothRape and Do you know what my favorite
book is? ... Fifty shades of Rape, are nonsensical and
bizarre, which is what makes them humorous to us.
There are other harmful remarks made on Rape Sloths social media pages such as a tweet posted
from the @RapeSloth Twitter account that read, She put me in the friend-zone... so I put her in
the rape-zone, which has horrifying implications of a man having his sexual advances denied or
rejected by a female and in response uses force and sexual violence. Another example would be
a tweet made from the twitter account @TheRapeSloth, which has over 164,000 followers, that
states, I rape on the first date. The fact that these tweets are meant to be humorous does not
make the notion behind them any less dangerous. In actuality the humor takes away from the
violent acts the memes are insinuating. This is because often times the ridiculousness of these
variations cannot help but instigate laughter, which ends up turning a serious subject into an
amusing one. Consequently, rape culture and sexual violence are perpetuated through the
mockery such a serious subject.
Not only does this meme negatively effect women in todays society, it also places men in
a poor light as it can be assumed in most variations that the sloth is male. For example, in the
versions with text that reads, Dont worry babeits only the tip and Wait til you see my

dick, it becomes quite clear that the sloth has been gendered as a male with references to its
male anatomy. The repercussions of this are significant because it reinforces the notion that men
are the only ones that commit acts of sexual violence towards women, when in reality this is not
the case. The truth is that sexual violence affects millions of both men and woman nationwide
and sex crimes can be committed by either gender. According to the Department of Justice and
the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2013, one out of every ten rape victims happens to be male.
and about 3% of American menor 1 in 33have experienced an attempted or completed rape
in their lifetime (https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence). Unfortunately, Rape
Sloth works against this truth by perpetuating the belief that only men commit rape towards
woman.
Finally, Rape Sloth also perpetuates the primitive belief that men are entitled to control
womans bodies, which many woman throughout history have fought long and hard to prove a
myth. In other words, is no coincidence that this meme stemmed from a topless calendar
modeling shoot. Although the sloth may not technically be dressed either, he is not expected to
be, while the woman is shown in the nude, vulnerable to the male (or the sloths) gaze. Having
the sloth in some images refer to the woman as a slut or a whore insinuates that the sexual
violence is acceptable because the woman is viewed as overly sexualized or as asking for it.
This is where the naked body becomes significant. Is the female asking for it by her nudity?
This could be the underlying message that comes across - that that men have no control of
themselves around nude woman so they should cover themselves up or they are at risk of being
raped. This kind of slut shaming also stems from the ancient belief that womans sexuality was
something to be controlled and repressed. Even though many of us today know that these are

just myths this, in a patriarchal society like ours this kind of rhetoric is still dangerous to have
around and only works to hinder the progress woman have made
over the years.
As adults, many of us understand the absurdity behind
memes. But by sharing memes such as Rape Sloth online, we
become complicit in spreading the harmful messages attached to
them. With children starting to surf the web and use social media
at increasingly younger ages, harmful rhetoric can make its way
into the hands of young people who have not yet learned about sexual assault or rape culture. It
now has the power to influence those who are not yet educated on the danger and impact of
sexual violence. Instead teenagers and young peoples first encounter with the subject could be
from a meme that perpetuates the culture of rape and misogyny instead of accurately informing
them about it. And it is understandable that children could just view the meme as a funny picture
with an amusing caption without understanding the seriousness behind it until they learn about it
in school or from a well-informed adult. This opportunity may not arise for years after the
underlying messages of the meme have already paved the way, which means it has the potential
to impact them in the long run if the rhetoric being spread isnt debunked and rebuked.
Although I agree that many memes can work satirically by taking something serious such
as politics and politicians, and turning it into something comical, the Rape Sloth meme takes
the extremely serious and sensitive topic of sexual assault and turns it into something insulting
and degrading instead. The viral aspect of the meme means that it can find its way onto any
number of screens, spreading harmful rhetoric to young people who are often too young and
uneducated on the topic to know better. Ultimately, rhetoric that perpetuates such a culture of

disrespect, such as the Rape Sloth meme, is unacceptable, destructive, and should not be
tolerated by either woman or men alike.

Bibliography
"Rape Sloth." Know Your Meme News. N.p., 30 Oct. 2015. Web. 09 Nov. 2016.
Victims of Sexual Violence: Statistics | RAINN. Victims of Sexual Violence: Statistics
RAINN, www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence.