14 DAY TRIAL // There is nothing that compares to rape but rape itself: this is the lesson that Candace Cameron Bure, the latest addition to the panel of ABC’s The View, should take with her after the latest round of controversy.
It all started with a discussion on how Twitter trolls fat-shamed and trolled Lena Dunham off Twitter, after she posted a photo of herself in her boyfriend’s underwear. Bure tried to say she could relate to how Dunham felt, because she’d been in a similar situation as well.
Twitter can be a very mean place
You can see this segment of the show in the video below. Whoopi Goldberg tried to argue that you can’t expect to post a photo of yourself in someone else’s underpants and not expect negative comments, especially on Twitter, which isn’t exactly known as the most friendly online community ever.
Raven Symone agreed, but at the same time, she stressed that it wouldn’t hurt if Twitter users showed some manners and minded their mouth when they decided to criticize someone.
The conclusion was that the anonymity of Twitter brings out the worst in people, and they suddenly feel entitled to say the nastiest things to someone they don’t know, just because they can.
Bure chimed in to say that she knew this from experience, because once she joined The View, she became the target of such abuse. While Dunham compared cyberbullying to “verbal violence,” Bure went a bit further.
Cyberbullying is like rape, apparently
“I’ve never been more verbally abused in my life than on Twitter, and specifically in the last few months, having come on this show,” Bure said. “A lot of people don’t agree with me - that’s fine, don’t agree with me. But you don’t have to verbally abuse me and rape me. That’s what they do to me on Twitter.”
While it’s true that Twitter can turn abusive in a second and that public figures are most often exposed to this kind of vitriol, you really can’t compare a mean or insulting 140-word message to the very violent crime of rape.
As many upset viewers rushed to tell Bure on the same social networking platform, only one thing compares to rape: and that’s rape itself. She should remember that language is important and not be so melodramatic next time.
This is the second time that The View lands itself in hot waters with viewers in less than a month, after the women on the panel mocked Miss Colorado Kelley Johnson’s monolog about nurses at Miss America 2015. Johnson is a nurse in real life as well, and the show ended up losing several important sponsors because of said “joke.”
when will people stop using "rape" as a comparison for anything they don't like? @candacecbure your statement is #ignorant #disturbing
— Courtney C (@CourtRetort) October 1, 2015
@TMZ @fishwrapped Candace Cameron Bure's choice of the word rape to describe what is being done to her by online criticism is melodramatic.
— Tori (@torinspiration) October 1, 2015
I think @Mariska should have a nice talk with Candace Cameron bure on her comments about rape #LetsLeadByExample
— Marc Anthony (@markyBananas) October 1, 2015
@candacecbure things that are like rape: rape. Perhaps time to get off Twitter since popular opinion does not lean in your direction?
— Turi (@turi_nom) October 1, 2015