Pardew causes a stir after "Rape" comment on MOTD2

[Pablo]

If he'd said "he bummed the **** out of the fullback all day long" I would probably have burst out laughing, people use that kind of terminology all the time, we've all done it from time to time, lets be honest, doesnt mean we arent abhorred by rape though

[Neil Young]

Exactly what I thought when I first read this. Rape is obviously a horrendous crime, but it's not like murder is especially pleasant either and we don't seem to have a problem using that in more trivial everyday parlance. Ditto torture. Not sure what to think about this really, but I don't think people ought to be outraged.



Ah yes, because he's obviously making a serious comparison of rape and a football tackle. It couldn't be hyperbole, no chance! People could argue it's tasteless and it's pretty obviously an inadvisable turn of phrase, but that wouldn't be quite so newsworthy I suppose.

Perhaps the solution would be to avoid trivialising murder too...?

I think actually there is a difference: football is predominantly the interest of men; perpetrators of murder and rape are predominantly men; victims of murder are predominantly men and victims of rape are predominantly women.

I'm not saying rape is worse than murder - in fact I'd say the reverse is true - but given the social context then I suggest men might appreciate that casual use of such a term will be heard differently by women.