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    ItWorks!Rebecca "Burt" Rose
    9/04/14 11:05am

    To everyone saying it is just a joke: That's the point.

    If you don't understand yet that rape is not a joking matter then, and I mean this politely as possible, sod off. Go. Leave. Don't come back until you have expanded your views, mind and empathy.

    Rape is NOT a joking matter. It is never 'just a joke'. Ever.

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      LocoEstebanItWorks!
      9/04/14 11:16am

      Depends on your sense of humor. For me, the outright slaughter of my entire family, all those who bear my last name, has the ability to be a funny joke. What's off limits for you is probably not off limits for me.

      I agree that calling it a rape room is stupid and juvenile, and it's made much, much worse by the decision to fire the employee who was bothered by that depiction, but I blanch at the idea that there are things 'off limits' to comedy. For me, nothing is. Ever.

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      giovontiItWorks!
      9/04/14 11:16am

      A lot of humor has been found in aspects of horrible things. I'm reminded of some holocaust jokes...

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    Emma GolddiggerRebecca "Burt" Rose
    9/04/14 11:21am

    Oh, man, don't you love it when you can shoot the shit and joke with your coworkers? I used to have a group of coworkers who sat around with me all day making jokes about genitalia and sex and vibrators that play Christmas music. Those were the days! Now most of my coworkers are religious and I have to watch what I say around them. I can't even swear in front of most of them. I'm going to call up HR and get all my new coworkers fired. They're gonna be like, "Waaaaahhh, I didn't deserve to get fired, and ideally it would have been nice to feel comfortable at work." But their problems are trivial compared to my god-given right to make all the dick jokes at my workplace! Right? Right?

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      CaptOtterEmma Golddigger
      9/04/14 11:38am

      It seems like you're more taking issue with the fact that they a) didn't respect her boundaries; and b) that they got her fired for complaining about them not respecting her boundaries; as opposed to proclaiming that rape jokes, regardless of the audience or context or circumstances in which they are told, categorically harm the very fabric of the universe.

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      BwanaEmma Golddigger
      9/04/14 11:40am

      Your right to free speech trumps someone else's right to feel comfortable? Hmm, where have I heard that? Possibly in the constitution or a Supreme Court decision? Yes, possibly those places.

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    LynxRebecca "Burt" Rose
    9/04/14 10:49am

    "she wouldn't work" = she can't take a rape joke.

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      andsmokeit is mrs tormund giantsbaneLynx
      9/04/14 10:56am

      Addendum:

      "she wouldn't work" = she's not a he

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    CavalishRebecca "Burt" Rose
    9/04/14 10:43am

    "If anyone wants to hear me trash talk about this woman, come to my business. We can talk in the rape room!"

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      doesnthaveenoughquartersCavalish
      9/04/14 10:52am

      His responses leave no room for doubt about whether this happened. They make him sound both creepy and lacking in insight.

      "I feel bad that she had to lash out this way. I have known her for many years and think of her as a friend.": Such an inappropriate response.

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      BretsHairHelmetdoesnthaveenoughquarters
      9/04/14 10:59am

      Yep, typical non-apology. I feel bad that SHE did this.

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    Pie-pieRebecca "Burt" Rose
    9/04/14 10:47am

    God, it's like men can't even joke about brutally terrorizing people anymore! Why you gotta ruin all their fun? Get a sense of humor ladies, gosh.

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      bernardgPie-pie
      9/04/14 11:10am

      I see what you did there...

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      CaptOtterPie-pie
      9/04/14 11:22am

      Even if they're gonna tout some kind of "humor trumps all" attitude (i.e., a given person is intent on telling that kind of joke somewhere in their life), telling this sort of joke at work is impractical. And firing the person who blew the whistle two days after they blew whistle (even if there is a totally legit business reason) is just shitty management. The potential liability to which the manager has exposed the store is nuts.

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    Meander061Rebecca "Burt" Rose
    9/04/14 10:47am

    I'm not even going to be bothered trying to find the appropriate GIF, I'm so annoyed:

    <<table flip. GIF>>

    Idiot comics guys. Just when women are coming in to the business.

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      adultosaur married anna on the astral planeMeander061
      9/04/14 11:13am

      we're a huge percentage of the audience, just like with the nfl. it's insane.

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      Meander061adultosaur married anna on the astral plane
      9/04/14 11:17am

      It is insane. It's not even silly, or funny, or cute, or whatever the hell they think it is. My daughter goes to comics shops.

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    inkhatRebecca "Burt" Rose
    9/04/14 11:16am

    Just a joke... a 'joke' isn't something you say because it's rebellious/weird/quirky to you. A joke is funny. A joke is something that makes you and other people laugh. A joke's entire purpose is to creature humor.

    Does 'rape room' make people laugh? No? Are you just saying it because it seems edgy and that's fun? Then it's not a fucking joke. It's just a shitty thing you feel like doing.

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      aisuru113inkhat
      9/04/14 11:19am

      If you have to say "It's a joke" it's not a joke.

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      metaXzeroinkhat
      9/04/14 11:32am

      With the right context or backstory, anything can be funny for various kinds of people. But what's funny for one person can be offensive to another. And you gotta be aware of that and be considerate when new people enter your circle or even just pass through it.

      These guys clearly don't want to.

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    FoolTheWorldRebecca "Burt" Rose
    9/04/14 11:21am

    Boston comic lovers, please don't think this guy stands for all comic shop owners in the area. This shit never would have gone down at New England Comics, Million Year Picnic, or Bedrock Comics. Period.

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      adultosaur married anna on the astral planeFoolTheWorld
      9/04/14 12:06pm

      i need to find a good comic shop round these parts. i like whichever one is in davis, but it's sort of a pain to get to* read: i want parking because i have a car now and get places in 10 minutes instead of an hour on the train

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      FoolTheWorldadultosaur married anna on the astral plane
      9/04/14 12:20pm

      I can't speak to the quality of Hub Comics (the one in Davis), but I've heard good things. Bedrock is out in Framingham on Route 9 (read: parking!), and is great if you like old comics rather than new releases. One of the owners runs the Boston Comic-Con and is just a peach.

      Million Year is in Harvard Square, and they have great indie books and the owner plays AWESOME music. New England Comics has locations in Quincy, Allston, Harvard Square, Brockton, Norwood, and Malden, so you might like any number of those for convenience sake. There is also JP Comics and games in JP (duh), Comicopia in Kenmore, aaaand....I'm sure there are others. I think I've been to most of them. :)

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    MallocRebecca "Burt" Rose
    9/04/14 12:41pm

    Shared this with a friend from across the country who actually works at a comics shop and also happens to be black, and has many amusing stories about casual nerd racism. He had a pretty good comment I'm going to paraphrase here.

    Him: "Okay, so if my shop had a room that everyone called 'dead nigger storage', think they'd fire me if I complained? No. Because that's fucked up if you have employees dropping n-bombs casually. Nobody cares if its just a Pulp Fiction reference, you don't say that shit casually, especially around a black dude who's a co-worker you don't really know that well. This kind of the same idea."

    Me: "Did that actually happen to you?"

    Him: "Yup."

    Me: "What'd they do?"

    Him: "They fired the guy who named the room that and apologized to me. Which is what should've happened here to that girl."

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      Boris NikolayevichMalloc
      9/04/14 12:56pm

      So much this.

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      SooniMalloc
      9/04/14 3:16pm

      That is some straight up correct shit happening in your buddy's workplace.

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    septembergrrlRebecca "Burt" Rose
    9/04/14 10:52am

    Okay, so the owner probably didn't know/care about the (ha ha, so funny) "rape room" nickname. But the fact his reaction when he was told was to brush it off and allow the whistleblower to be fired — and not to reprimand his friend about not making fucked-up jokes — speaks volumes.

    Also, what kind of small business owner (and I assume this is a small business, if the owner runs the twitter account personally and his friend is the manager) doesn't know when staff are let go? That seems like it would be the kind of thing he'd want to keep his eye on.

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      Ian Muirseptembergrrl
      9/04/14 11:52am

      This 100%. I spend a lot of time at my local comic book store. There are lots of folks there that don't exactly have an abundance of social skills and inappropriate jokes like this come up from time to time.

      The difference is, the staff at the store I go to (and many of the regular customers) will step in an let them know that shit's not cool. Silence when these jokes are made is implied support. Stupid, inappropriate jokes get made, dealing with them correctly helps make sure they don't keep coming up. At the end of the day, if any of your employees or customers feel threatened, you take it seriously and you say something regardless of how harmless you personally find the joke.

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      septembergrrlIan Muir
      9/04/14 12:01pm

      Great points. And yeah, we all need to remember silence is too often read as agreement.

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