This is hardly a new phenomenon. I graduated from college in 1986, and even in the mid-80's, it was pretty common to hear expressions like "geez, I really got raped on that exam". Which is not to say it's ok... but it's not particularly new either.

Spend a day on Fark and 98% of the rape jokes are man on man rape jokes.

The word rape should not be used in any kind of slang context, because this trivializes the suffering of men and women who have been sexually battered, right?

The word gay should not be used in any sense other than referring to homosexuality, and especially not in front of the word Hussar

The word crap should not be used in any context other than flushing toilets, because it is demeaning to the descendants of Thomas Crapper, noted inventor of the ballcock and other patented devices for flushing human waste. Even though the term crap was in use before Crapper came along.

All English dictionaries should be censored by the Newspeak Committee for the Enforcement of Politically Correct Language in America, which has worldwide enforcement and extradition powers, including torture where necessary.

Big Sister, I love you.

A more apt analogy for the slang usage of "rape" is the slang usage of "murder" and its derivatives in common parlance (e.g. "We got killed out there.", "That test was murder."). If you swap "rape" and "murder" in these statements you get the same meaning. Swap "rape" and "gay" and the meaning is lost.

An interesting analysis might investigate why allusions to killing someone is generally considered less vulgar than allusions to raping someone. But that is a discussion for another day ...

A similar phenomenon takes place when people change the meaning of "Nazi" from "power mad regime which executes Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, etc. in its crazed quest for world domination and 'racial purity'" to "guy who won't sell me a bowl of soup that I want" or "person who prevents me from fulfilling some whim." It's deplorable, but words get devalued very easily.

Consider our slang and you'll acknowledge that the word "rape" when used in this manner is the natural extension of sexual metaphors for dominance. We've long said that bad things "sucked" or "sucked some serious cock", etc. And for the longest time everyone was "fucked" or "completely screwed." "Fucked" is even incorporated into dated terms like "Snafu" or "Fubar". This is to say nothing of all sorts of euphemisms like "get bent".

Regarding the terms themselves, there is a distinction between suggesting somebody has been animalistically fucked in a potentially consensual context and flat-out rape. But was consent ever really implied when somebody says they got "fucked over"? I don't think so. In terms of the metaphorical meaning, there's nothing really novel of this casual use of the word rape.

This use of "rape" is offensive, but it's also just the latest most prominent term used to describe the same old thing: dominance. Instead of singling out the word "rape" we should also consider other terms that are used to basically mean the same thing.

...using "rape" in these contexts doesn't bother me particularly - people do the same with "murder", right?

In fact, it elevates the concept into "the ultimate badness" (within the context of "hyperbole"). I've heard people use "genocided" in the same context.

What bugs me is the word "gay" used as meaning "lame" in 20-somethings - even, I might add, by people who've spent some large portion of their lives gay-oriented. They always get a "Socratic lecture" as follows.

"That outfit is gay? Does that mean it's stylish?"

"I don't get it, all the gay men I know dress very well?"

"It's just a figure of speech? Cool! Can I say the outfit is really nigger, then?"

(Or if needs be, "People have been killed over that word. You sound like a Republican.")

Unfortunately, a sad fact of life is that rape isn't a woman's issue in America any more - because many (even most?) rapes are in jail, with men as the target.

(I say "even most" because even though it seems pretty clear that more individual women than men are raped overall, the rate of repeat rape is much higher behind bars.)

(I correct myself - rape is always a woman's issue, and will continue to be even if we fix the horrors of the jail system.)

This is absurd. My softball team lost our game last night by a score of 34 to 8. We used many words to describe this. We were killed, murdered, destroyed, etc. No one used the word rape but to suggest that rape is off limits while killed or murdered is not? Absurd.

Ugh - I hate when people use "rape" in a slangy way.

The problem with the attempt to 'control' meaning is that slang simply doesn't work that way: think of people who bemoan the 'loss' of 'gay' when it meant 'merry' because they don't (want to?) 'get' its changed usage. (And think of how 'queer' is now somewhere between an in-yer-face sexual identity and a term of abuse.)

Similarly, the argument that the use of 'pimp' - as in 'Pimp My Ride' - shouldn't be allowed (if you're the kind of person that regards prostitution as inherently violent and exploitative) makes the same mistake of thinking slang (especially sexual slang) has to pass some kind of official dictionary test (which only you get to set). In some instances, unfortunately, it doesn't.

During the early 1990's another debate took place about devaluing the word "rape". Back when sexual harassment was a hot topic, prominent feminists argued that harassment in the workplace or even consensual relationships involving a power imbalance was rape. Conservatives complained loudly about the destructive nature of those arguments on actual rape victims. Of course all that "harassment is rape" talk stopped when Bill Clinton got a blow job from an unpaid intern in the ultimate demonstration of sticking it to the powerless. Anyway, after all these years it is great to see the new batch of feminists coming around on this.