I honestly don't feel that the comic or Gabe's response to it was unreasonable. The comic has a long history of joking about rape. The comic has a character who is a literal rapist. It is not the kind of comic you should read if you are so sensitive about rape that hearing the word 'rape' used in an impossible context triggers your PTSD. And as comic authors, they have no obligation to soften their work for a more sensitive audience, any more than George Carlin, Lenny Bruce or Richard Pryor had an obligation to soften their work for a more sensitive public.
That's not really the point, though, and the problem with the "Don't like it? Don't read it" response is that it can be used to shut down absolutely any criticism of anything, ever. And Penny Arcade is actually on record with its opinion of lowbrow comedians defending their work from critics with
"It's not for you."Rape jokes are common and, usually, lazy. At best, they're a way of deliberately using something horrifying in a trivial context for the sake of contradiction (contradiction being generally seen as the basis for most humor). At worst, they're a thoughtless attempt at comedy through vulgarity and shock value. Precisely which is which is personal and subjective.
I got a little chuckle out of the dickwolves strip and thought no more about it. To the point that I actually had to flip back to it to see what the hell they were talking about in the followup strip. Some people had a different reaction than I did. Okay. How'bout, instead of trivializing their criticism, we let them talk about it and acknowledge that it's a reasonable conversation to have?
I think that, ultimately, Gabe DID do the right thing -- he backed down from putting the slogan on a T-shirt, and stated clearly that PAX is a place where he wants people to be comfortable and that's more important than scoring any kind of rhetorical points. But by then I think he'd missed the opportunity for a Teachable Moment.
I think Classic made the point well:
It's depressingly uncommon for dudes to "get" that rape is a big deal. What counts as rape, why it is not OK, why it is as prevalent as it is.
If Gabe weren't a net superstar, I'd say being yelled at until he makes a solid apology would be more than enough to punish him for the whole dickwolves fiasco. Unfortunately, Gabe is kind of a role model to most of the internet. I'm not sure his penitence was public enough for his legions of fans to understand what mistake Gabe made and why it was a mistake he needed to apologize for.
And no, of course Gabe's under no obligation to have that conversation with his fans. But it would have been the classy thing to do.