Miss April B: Loser of the Week: Daniel Tosh, Horrid Chauvanist and Supporter of Sexual Assault Against Women

As everyone knows, Daniel Tosh said that it would be funny if an audience member got raped by five guys for disagreeing with him. I don’t know what is more disgusting. Is it the fact he is horridly unfunny and somehow has a career? Or is it that he made that crack about the audience member deserving to get gang raped? Or is it the fact the male dominated comedy community is standing behind him?

Yes, there is the issue that it was a “joke” and he was “addressing” a heckler. Yes, there is issue that it is his freedom of speech. There are all these reasons to defend this blatant sexist who’s rise to fame was based on luck and luck alone.

However, I am going to be the exception in the comedy community and say what he said and did was not okay. First off, wishing for a woman to be sexually assaulted is beyond just mean, it is cruel and evil. Rape is a crime of hate, and when Daniel Tosh wished that upon his heckler he was saying he hated women in not so many words. But the problem is not what he said but how he said it. He could have called her fat. He could have called her ugly. He could have called her a slut. Instead, Mr. Tosh chose to make it about gender.

That being said statements like this are not okay because it encourages violence against women. We live in a society and a world where the glass ceiling is ever present still. Despite the Title IX Warriors like my mom, women,especially in sports where there are a bathing suit, are objectified. The subject of a woman’s sexual history is still brought up in cases of rape by male defense lawyers so the predators they represent can get a fair shake. Daniel Tosh supports this patriarchy.

Gang rape is even more horrendous. Not only is it devastating to the victim, but happens routinely all over the world in war torn countries as a way to show conquering by the enemy. In addition, in some African countries women who are lesbian identified are gang raped because there are men who feel they can “get that out of them” if they “get some in them.” The worst part is these people go unprosecuted. When Daniel Tosh made that remark he said this was okay. He belittled the pain and nightmares these women have to live with.

I know how damaging the male sector of the comedy community can be. A few years ago, an ex-fiance who wanted me dead took his issues with me to a comedy message board. He told tall tales of my abusive nature and pulled emails out of context to damage me. I never posted about how he hit me regularly as well as tried to assault me in other fashions. I never once mentioned his multiple suicide attempts in front of me. Never did I mention him offering to kill his mother in order to get the money to be with me. Never did I mention the stalking, the hang up calls, the IMs where he blackmailed me after we broke up. I emailed the owner of the site. The owner said it was a freedom of speech issue. And by the way, the small majority who defended my ex had one thing in common.

They were male.

Surprise. Surprise.

That being said, jokes like Daniel Tosh’s aren’t jokes. There is a thread of truth in every joke, and this is beyond disturbing that he still has fans. By making the joke he did he defends the act of rape. He defends to corrective rape that happens regularly in Africa. He defends men like my ex who abuse women so that they can have the freedom of speech to slander, stalk, and threaten to kill someone simply for ending a relationship. He defends a system that puts battered and abused women on trial. Yes, words are that powerful.

I might not be famous like Daniel Tosh, but I have received my fair share of media exposure. When I was on TLC and talked about my fiancé and did radio interviews, emails flooded in from young women who had broken up with men just like him. I knew upon seeing that I had a bigger responsibility, and that was to use the big mouth God gave me to let people know that this language and behavior are not okay.

Objectification leads to abuse.

I was asked to do a shoot for a campaign about domestic violence where my eyes would be blackened and I would look beaten up. I refused because I don’t view myself as a victim. Men like Daniel Tosh would want me in that role because it would be all too easy for them to box me in. That way he and his cohorts can dream about having me one at a time. No, I use my voice to say that violence against women in any way is not okay.

Am I making this about me? Oh yes. But I am making it about violence against women. A few years ago, when I posted a video a young woman told me if I made it that meant there was something wrong with the world and that Daniel Tosh was the best comedian ever. I googled him and thought he was lame and unfunny. If a nitwit who wants to support a man who wants to see her victimized as a bloodied sex object on the ground, then the fact she hated on me is a step in the right direction.

Yes, it is a joke. But it is my right not to laugh. Yes, it is his freedom of speech. But it is my right to publically disagree with Danny Boy. It is also my right to boycott his program, and to go to his shows and heckle him. It is my right to petition to get him removed from television. It is my right to speak out.

Of course I won’t be getting support from the male dominated standup realm. I don’t expect to. Let’s face it, these issues will always be a joke to men because they never have to face them. Of course, Daniel Tosh has just made an enemy, and a very vocal one. This is not the end of my battle against this moron, only the beginning.

I don’t think he should have to apologize. It would be insincere and flat like his comedy. My only hope is that he gets testicular cancer. That way he can pay with the only head he thinks with and it would forever eliminate Mr. Tosh from the gene pool.

Choke on that Daniel Tosh.

I will not go away. I will not apologize. I will not lay in the gravel because that is the place you feel best for me. Besides, soot isn’t becoming on me.

Rot in hell.

Love, April

Daniel Tosh in his off time. Disguised so he can sexually assault an unsuspecting women.

I always suspected Daniel Tosh of being a sexual predator. I hope they catch him in the act and he is convicted. Only so they can do this to him in prison :)