“Dude, that test totally raped me!”

“Ugh, that guy on the dance floor was all over the place. He was basically raping me with his dance moves.”

It’s comments like these that I hear in numerous public settings whether I am with my friends, walking through campus and hearing the chatter of the other students or walking through the packed sidewalks of Campustown on a Saturday night.

Reading Danielle Ferguson’s recent piece about human trafficking, I realized how prevalent and serious the issue of coerced sex is in the world, and even in front of our eyes here in Iowa.

When a girl is forced or tricked into having sex, forced to do things with her body that she was never willing to do, it is a tragic occurrence. So why do we use the word “rape” so nonchalantly or even in a joking manner? I admit I use the word a lot as a joke, but I realize that that is not okay.

I tell my friends all the time that they can come to me for help and support if anything happened to them like them getting raped, but what support will I really be offering them if I don’t even take rape seriously?

I’m sure many of you have seen the “That’s so… Buy a Dictionary” posters all around campus. They question the use of the words “gay” and “retarded,” pointing out that the fact there are so many words in the English language that could be used instead of these words that easily and often offend people.

Think of these posters as a wake-up call, offering an opportunity for you to explore your vocabulary. Rather than using the same, “easy” descriptors like “gay” or “rape” for a situation you feel negatively toward, think of a word that is more mature and widely accepted.

Rape is not something to laugh about, and should be treated and discussed with gravity. If you won’t make fun of your friend when he or she comes to you with the confession that they were raped, then why would you use the word so lightly to describe a trivial situation?

This is a lesson about choosing your words carefully. You don’t know everyone around you, and you could easily offend someone with the words you use.

And this is also an important point to remember in any professional setting. As we are preparing to move on from our studies and enter the workplace, we must change the way we speak with one another and adopt a more professional and mature vocabulary. And this definitely does not include the informal use of words that are offensive and degrading.

The next time you are with your friends, and one of you wants to tell the others how badly an exam went or how weird a guy’s dance moves were, don’t use “rape” to describe it. Remember, there are countless words in the English language alone, so there are other words to choose from.