We’re standing up for Sasha Banks today. What was said was a display of absolutely abhorrent behavior.

Words like that are rooted in violence, misogyny, and the desire to hold power over women. You don’t joke like that.

As a community we stand up today and say “never again.”

R*pe isn’t a joke or a turn of phrase that can be thrown around to express your desire for the opposite sex.

It’s violence. Period.

With comments like this, one can conclude that the desire is rooted in the pleasure some men get from “taking” something from a woman.

It’s rooted in patriarchal power structures that reinforce the idea that sex is something you DO TO a woman, not have WITH.

THIS is an idea that is all too normalized in our culture and a major root of the problem.

As men, we have to unpack this ideology and abandon it. Failure to do so results in a dangerous snowball effect that leads to violent language or worse, violent actions.

“Locker Room talk” and dark humor centered around violence against women is something we should actively be working to dismantle and leave behind. There’s no room for it moving forward.

None.

Men, we have to actively work to be anti-misogynistic. We are responsible.