Okay, originally this was going to be a throwaway comment but there's a lot of things going on that need to be addressed.
First, consensual sex in a video game does not and will NEVER promote rape culture. If it's anything like the rest of the series, the sex presented is consensual, healthy, and enjoyable. Honestly, if all sex in media was like Witcher sex it'd be an awesome world. Putting healthy, consensual sex out there is probably the best way to FIGHT rape culture.
Secondly, rape culture does exist. Frat parties, cruising vans, grooming... I'm sure I could go on but I don't really want to. At its core, rape culture describes subsets of society that promote the culture that "It's okay, dressing like that means she wanted it", and associated attitudes, and many of those attitudes DO come through into mainstream society.
Thirdly, people have tried to argue that rape studies are inaccurate because "The women went back and had sex with them" or "The women refused to identify as rape victims". Rape is sex that someone did not want to have. Simple. If you are pressured into something, you did not want to have it. Now, admittedly there's a bit of a grey area created by the way that we've created a culture where no female is allowed to WANT to have sex, but if you have to be PRESSURED into it, you didn't want it. On the first point, rape is a power crime, not a sex crime. Power relationships are weird. Why do abused women stick with their partners? (Or abused men, of which I may know a couple as well). Because of ties of power and webs of psychological ties. It's not that simple. At all.
It's easy to say rape jokes aren't funny. Most of them aren't. But you could say the same about murder jokes. And amputee jokes (What do you do if you're attacked by a pirate with no arms? Nothing, 'es 'armless!). People use humour to deal with serious topics. What we need to do is look at how it rpesents it. Normalising it isn't okay. Trivialising people that experience it isn't okay. Laughing about it because the alternative is crying? Ain't got enough time to cry about everything in this world. Not and stay sane.
So remember, consensual sex IS NOT RAPE. Like jeez, how the crap do you even make that leap.
Post edited January 30, 2015 by Solar1313