Verbs are the action words.

One thing that has managed to ceaselessly preturb me is the rather widespread use of the verb 'rape' on Facebook of late. I frequently log in to my live feed to find a friend boasting about 'raping' an exam or 'raping' an assignment. Of course there are also many signs of 'Frape' or Facebook Rape. What I'd love to know is when rape became a term that is used so flippanty?

For me, rape has always meant something horrific. It disturbs me that anyone would so easily make use of a term that is generally associated with unlawful sexual assault. Yes, rape also refers to a kind of seed, but I seriously doubt any of the people who claim to have 'raped' their exams are attempting to infer that they gave it a good seeding.

Rape can also refer to certain atrocities in military history such as The Rape of Athens or The Rape of Belgium in 1914. However, I highly doubt that anyone using the phrase is referring to this kind of action either; unless you study history or have a keen interest in it, the chances of these incidents being in your sphere of general knowledge is slim.

Now I'm no conservative and I'm certainly not a prude. I'm well able to have a laugh when I don't find the joke unsettling. There's just something about joking about rape that doesn't sit well with me. Even thinking of such an act makes me recoil in horror. You only need to listen to the men and women who have suffered through such an horrific experience, hear the stories of those who were too scared to come forward, to realise that this is no mere action. It's pure violation. So talk about making an exam your 'bitch' or something equally representative of the fact that you pretty much aced it, but don't suggest you're a rapist with respect to it. Just don't joke about rape at all.