Comedian Damon Wayans made waves recently with his controversial comments defending Bill Cosby against rape allegations during an interview on Power 105’s “The Breakfast Club” radio show Sept. 4.
“Tell the truth, if I was him, I would divorce my wife, wink wink, give her all my money, and then I would go do a deposition,” Wayans said on the air. “I’d light one of them three-hour cigars. I’d have me some wine and maybe a Quaalude, and I would just go off because I don’t believe he was raping.”
Wayans is of the impression that these women are not hurt mentally or physically, but simply financially. He accuses the women of having their hearts broken by Cosby and now seeking revenge in the form of cash.
“I believe he was in relationships with all of them and then he’s like, ‘You know what? I’m 78. It don’t work like that no more. I can’t get it up for any of y’all. Bye, bitches,’ and then they’re like, ‘Oh, really? Rape!’” Wayans said.
Wayans continues to go on by saying that Cosby is innocent until proven guilty, and we shouldn’t make it easy for people to come out in society and accuse people of rape.
There are more than 20 women who have come forward with stories of being raped by Cosby. Attorney Gloria Allred, who represents all three women who are seeking justice through the court system, as well as 21 other Cosby accusers, said in an L.A. press conference that it took an extreme amount of courage for these women to speak up.
“Many of them were in fear because they had never spoken out publicly about anything and certainly in some cases had never even told family, co-workers and friends about what they allege Mr. Cosby did to them,” Allred said.
Still, Wayans is either unfazed or uninformed because he adds even more fuel to the fire with his most ridiculous and tasteless comment yet:
“And some of them, really, is unrapeable. I look at them and go, ‘No, he don’t want that. Get outta here!’” Wayans continued. “Look, I understand fame. I’ve lived it. Women will throw themselves at you. They just want to be in your presence. There’s some that innocently will come up there, but not 40-something women. They’re not that naive.”
After researching these ludicrous allegations made by Wayans, I found myself curious to see what other FGCU students make of these comments and whether there really is a way for someone to be “unrapeable.”
“I think those statements are pretty absurd,” senior Kurt Lucas said “Obviously, Bill Cosby has some psychological issues if he did in fact rape those women so I’m not sure attractiveness goes into play. As far as the term ‘unrapeable’ I don’t think that is such a thing. Obviously if someone rapes another person, they have a lot of psychological problems and I feel looks aren’t 100 percent a motive.”
Lucas isn’t the only one who found the comments made by Wayans to be outlandish. In fact, every person I interviewed was completely disgusted by Wayans’ accusations and felt that society as a whole needs to make a change when it comes to the topic of rape.
“No matter how much of a joke you try to make rape, it’s never a joke,” senior Austin Megna said. “Referring to women as unrapeable is rude and uncalled for. People don’t rape people because they find them attractive, they rape them because they are disgusting human beings.”
I believe that we need to stand up against people such as Damon Wayans and his like who are deterring victims of rape from seeking mental and physical attention. There are crimes where attackers such as Cosby face no repercussions for their past actions.
“The word unrapeable should not even be a word, honestly,” senior Nikko Valderrosa said. “ I think that it’s pretty ridiculous that he would even say that. Women need to be treated with respect and it is not a joking matter. People do go through this, and for someone to make a joke about it is not OK.”
People who have the same opinion as Wayans have created an environment that prevents victims from coming forward when they are being sexually assaulted. I hope the fear of receiving comments from skeptics such as Wayans does not detour victims from coming out and speaking up when they have been hurt.
No one wakes up in the morning and decides they would like to be raped. A rape victim doesn’t look or act a specific way. A rape victim looks just like you and I. No one deserves to feel as if they can’t seek help in fear of being called a liar.
A woman does not need to look like a Victoria’s Secret model to be a rape victim. A woman only needs to possess one quality in order to be raped by someone who is willing to do so.
“If you have a vagina, you are rapeable.” said Darby Meagher, a junior at FGCU.
We are all capable of being raped. However, more importantly, we are all capable of stopping rape.
