Comments on: Mike Tyson’s Comeback

By: Simplejewel

Simplejewel — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:18:39 +0000

I completely, totally, 110% agree with Meg and William.

By: Mortisha

Mortisha — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 03:37:28 +0000

I think the “ear biting incident” still gets a lot of media attention because there is actual graphic video of it happening – it is great way to sensationalise a news story.
Although they could easily add a prison mug shot to highlight the rest of his disgusting past.

By: jussayin

jussayin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:17:17 +0000

#10 – I think it is because men are allowed to have no emotional control
when it comes to anger and aggression. Women are constantly chastised for
being emotionally soft but anger and aggression in men is exhalted. For instance,
there is that show about that British guy (can’t remember his name) who walks around
screaming at his new chefs. The show is despicable – one out-of-control douchebag
screaming at people who are executing his commands under pressure. The host has the
emotional control of a two-year-old. There is NO WAY a woman could away with
that behavior.

By: Meg

Meg — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:22:17 +0000

Sadly, perhaps the reason why people remember “the Ear Thing” but not the rape is that one is much more unusual than the other…

By: Margarett

Margarett — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:25:16 +0000

I have long been an unfan of MT. I was horrified when the British bend a law forbidding conficted felons from entering the country so that MT could fight with their up and coming fighter. When entire countries are willing to turn a blind eye to an act of utter brutality because ignoring it will allow them the dubious entertainment of watching two men trying to knock each other unconscience it just makes you want to throw you hands up in the air and howl!! I personally was shocked that he was allowed back into the business, but probably shouldn’t have been. I am however shocked that so many people are unaware of his past, as if it never even happened, and that he can covort with Disney’s chosen teen gods and goddesses. If I were that boy’s mother (whichever Jonas brother it was) I would have had an utter fit and refused to let my son have anything to do with that man.

But we ignore this sort of thing every day. Heck we listen to Ted Kennedy moralize about right and wrong and the state of the world, and the only difference between him and MT is that he had enough money not to get convicted!

Also thanks, Although The Hangover wasn’t even a blip on my screen, I shall now choose next Friday night to sit home, have an ice lollie, and revel in the fact that I am activly not watching it :D

By: Ashley

Ashley — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:10:41 +0000

Amen, Cara.

By: William

William — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:33:38 +0000

I’ll never understand the fascination so many people have with Tyson. He started out his time in the public eye by being a mediocre boxer with an unusually strong left at a time when boxing had few strong fighters. Then he went to jail because he raped a woman, which everyone somehow managed to be surprised by despite his domestic violence history. Even when he got out of jail and was given a second chance (for what reason I can’t comprehend) he fucking bit someone in the ring TWICE. What does this man have to do to get the rest of society to write him off?

By: Ista

Ista — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:23:01 +0000

Of course, if you go to wikipedia to even look it up, it’s barely mentioned. Sure, it’s under a huge headline, but it mentions how much he got and then how he got back into his career.

So, really, I think the thing that did him in was NOT the rape, but rather that whole ear biting thing. I guess rape just doesn’t matter. (<—I don't believe that, but sometimes it really seems like a lot of the rest of the world does.)

By: Alara Rogers

Alara Rogers — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:14:19 +0000

I still want to slap Sinead O’Connor silly for her “poor poor Mike Tyson” article in Rolling Stone where she talked about the young black woman who he had raped as if she were persecuting poor, poor Mike Tyson for racist reasons by accusing him of rape, the poor black man. Really, a black guy can’t get a break in this world, if every time he turns around and rapes someone they actually bring *charges* against him. God, I know O’Connor was abused by her mother and I know she did her best to bring the world’s attention to the abuses committed by the Catholic Church in Ireland, but her internalized misogyny and verbal abuse of a rape victim makes me want to kick her in the stomach. And I love her voice and her music. But she needs to be whacked upside the head for this.

I don’t know why this isn’t the first thing anyone says about Mike Tyson, either. “Mike Tyson, convicted rapist and boxing champion, did blah blah blah.” Hell, I’d accept “Mike Tyson, boxing champion and convicted rapist.” But the fact that he *raped* a woman, a young black woman who idolized him, and there was enough evidence to actually convict him of it in our racist rape culture despite the fact that he was a celebrity and she was black, needs to be brought up every time Tyson’s name is mentioned. The woman he raped deserves that much.

By: Cara

Cara — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:43:39 +0000

Well, exactly, folks. I knew, I thought that most people knew and just chose to not talk about it . . . but the thing is, when we choose to not talk about it, it means that people don't know! And when people don't know, people act as though it never happened, because in their world it never did. What I see going on is this: A lot of people know. A lot of the people who don't know are young. The reason they don't know is because they weren't alive, or they weren't old enough to be paying attention to the news when it happened. And yet, they still know about the ear thing, which means that people didn't just magically stop talking about Mike Tyson and his heinous acts of violence -- only certain kinds of violence that he is known to have commmitted. This therefore seems like an excellent example of the effects of people shutting up about rape. People not talking about rape is a form of dismissal, a form of public erasure. It's one big cycle. Mike Tyson is allowed a comeback because people don't care, and because they don't care they choose to not talk about it, and because they choose not to talk about it other people don't care because they don't know . . . and on and on it goes.