BBC apologises after Match of the Day pundit compares football tackle to rape

You can read the whole article here.

Fair enough. It's a retarded saying. I know there is no intent to trivialize rape when Alan Pardew says "He absolutely rapes him" but that's the whole point. The word rape has lost all it's meaning in this context already. If the word that society uses to connote one of it's most heinous acts becomes bereft of impact...then brotha! I don't know what to tell ya! But, you know, that's how it is.

It's a bit hard to blame Pardew here. After all how many times have you heard (or even used) this saying. Allow me, if you will, to get cerebral on yo' ass.

I think there's a real case to be made here that certain words used in certain contexts really do carry an entirely separate meaning from when the word is used in its original context. Allow me to elaborate.

Let us take, for example, the word "gay". When you didn't like the movie, and so when asked by your friend, "Did you like the movie?" you said "That movie was gay", did you (honeslty, in your mind) conceive of the film as a literally homosexual film? My guess is that you just thought it sucked balls. (But of course, when I say you thought it sucked balls, I don't really mean that in your mind the film literally wants to, has, or is right now sucking on some guys balls, I just mean that you thought it was simply an unenjoyable movie).

You see what I'm getting at?

In the case of the word "gay", while it's fair to argue that the widespread use of "gay" as a general pejorative is a pretty shitty comment on society, I think that it's also fair to argue that the sentiment behind the comment as used above has nothing cognitively to do with homosexuality. In this case it can be argued that the word "gay" bypasses all of it's original specificity, retaining only the empty pejorative aspects of it's meaning.

If we transpose this to the case of Pardew's comments, it is not, I should think, insignificant.

Lets go back to Pardew and his use of "rape". Is it a somewhat distressing development that the word rape has become disarmed of significance to the point of being used to describe a tackle in a football match? Without a doubt. But the fact is no one has ownership over language. Language grows and shifts in whatever way society grows and shifts. The use of "rape" in the context of the above article is hardly unique to Alan Pardew. I'm sure we can all attest to the fact that "rape" is a fairy widely used (if rather insensitive) saying in regards to sporting events when describing a blatant foul.

So.

Is Pardew trivializing rape when he says "he absolutely raped him"? Well...yes, in as much as he's validating a previously established, context-specific word-meaning which has it's origins in a rather insensitive metaphor with one of humanity's most horrible acts.

But does Alan Pardew really mean to trivialize rape when he says "he absolutely raped him"? I don't think so.

And isn't it the thought that counts?