J. Law Needs to Apologize for "Rape Scream" Joke

Jennifer Lawrence is so busy quirking it up that sometimes she just lets anything slip. At a Vanity Fair after-party for the Cannes Film Festival where Lawrence exhibited her hiccups cure, she also, according to Vulture reporter Jada Yuan, uttered this gross, glib remark that we assume was meant to be some kind of a joke: "I broke out my rape scream for you!"

Wait, what?

Apparently, Lawrence got overexcited when she spotted one of her favorite directors, Alfonso Cuarón, among the celebrities in attendance at the party. She was so overjoyed that she began screaming, and described it as a "rape scream." From Yuan's account:

Those were cries of joy; she'd just spotted Alfonso Cuarón in the crowd. "I broke out my rape scream for you!" she cried and grabbed his shoulders and screamed "Ahhhhh!!!" shaking her head like a crazed fan, or a woman in distress, into his face. Cuarón seemed quite pleased with his greeting.

Lawrence is painted as the goofy girl next door that everyone wants to be best friends with, but would you really want to befriend someone that describes excitement as a "rape scream?" It might seem like a joke to Lawrence, but rape is never an acceptable topic to joke about — especially for a star in a young adult franchise that so many young girls look up to.

Lawrence has yet to apologize for the "rape scream" comment and I hope that if and when she does finally explain herself, it's a sincere apology, and not an "I'm just a regular goofy gal" excuse. She can't hide behind that persona when she makes a mistake, and it's not entirely just that she often gets away with similar uniformed and offensive jokes simply because she is so publicly loved. There was the time she called mental illness a "weird quirk" and made some really crude remarks about gender on Ellen, but we're quick to forget her flaws because she is so visible and beloved in so many other ways.

This time, J. Law needs to sack up and apologize for her off-hand and off-color comment. Just because she's the most GIF-able celebrity of the moment doesn't earn her a free pass to make light of something so painful. Candor is one thing; ignorance is another.