And gay is another word, which has meant "happy" historically.  It now refers to a sexual orientation. 

The misuse of "gay" by teens is far more incorrect in proper use of language though.  The use of raping by teens online shows more of a lack of proper sportsmanship actually.  

There is an attempt at power by playing victimization through the use of language, by changing the meaning of words in order to try to score points and win power, bothers me.  People don't mean what they say, but use words to get used to cause people to act certain ways.  I am not saying this to diminish suffering and people who are disadvantaged, but to point out abuse of words.

I also see cases where bad situations keep getting new words for them, because eventually the original word gets negative associations by reality of what they describe.  People who have had disabilities or handicaps, end up having to change those words, becaue no matter how much the words attempt to stick, they eventually get overrun by the reality that people can't do something, and are limited.  Now it is a person is "physically challenged".  "Retarded" meant that a person had slowed (retarded) learning, but then that was seen as bad, so they had to change it.  Eventually "challenged" will go away also.  It is like, people who can't accept certain realities feel the need to change words presuming it makes their reality better.  Even handicapped could be a stronger word.  People get handicaps to equalize themselves in sports competition.  But nope, can't go with that, because handicapped has negative connotations.  We have to somehow make EVERYTHING wonderful.  BLECH!  Everything is NOT wonderful in life.  It would be good if people get past this... but then I get into railing against this "self-esteem" garbage being peddled as a cure all.

Getting gamers not to use the word rape would be one small step in changing rape culture...
I think it's more important that we stop blaming victims personally...
And I think it's important that men participate in these conversations...
That's not to say that I think men are the enemy of anyone hoping to eradicate rape culture...
I actually think women who blame women for what's happened to them are the bigger enemy...

I find it strange that we place harsher meaning on words like rape than we do on murder or kill. I've never seen anyone ever, in the history of planet Earth complain that someone used the word kill or murder to describe a beat down in a sporting or gaming event. When you beat someone in football 55-0 you "killed" them, and that's ok, but if you say you "raped" them it's in poor taste? Since when did rape become a worse crime than murder?

Personally, I think it's because people are generally over-sensitive in regards to anything related toward violence that happens to women or children. For example, if I ask you to visualize one child being raped or killed you would say that's the most horrific thing imaginable. If I ask you to imagine a nuke being dropped on a major city you're almost desensitized to it. it doesn't bother you at all.

So what's worse? The genocide of a million people or the rape of a women or child?

I don't really have an answer one way or the other, I jut find it interesting to look at how we place more or less value on certain crimes and actions based on who we perceive these crimes or actions generally happen to.

There are many variations of the definition of rape. Kids use rape you to express domination mostly in a PVP match. They aren't talking about actual sexual rape but one of competitive nature.

Good points lulz

I think people are just getting to sensitive about everything. We have bread a generation of pussies.

I could not agree more.

It's just hyperbole between competitive individuals, nothing else.

So no, the true real world meaning of rape is not trivialized.

Killing someone is, for all intents and purposes, a much smaller crime than rape. In general, excluding extremists, just about everyone agrees that there are justified reasons to kill human beings (self-defense, war, etc.). In general, excluding lunatics, just about no one thinks that there are justified reasons to commit rape (because there really aren't). That's just how it works. As such, killing is an accepted reality and a much smaller deal so belittling the crime is quite alright in comparison. Why do you think we have so many games (hell, even 7+ games) that involve killing people and just about none about rape?

And it really isn't over-sensitive to feel worse for women and children. A crime committed to a woman or a child is worse than a crime committed to an adult man. Since women and children are comparitively defenseless, harming them implies much more malice on the part of the criminal. Although it's a bit traditional to think this way, since a man is more physically able to defend himself, it's not as cruel to harm/kill him.

Your bomb example doesn't make sense either. I'm desensitized to nukes in general; even if we compare an explosion to the killing of a single man, the latter image is still worse. I forget who it was, but someone said something like the death of a man is a tragedy, the death of a million, a statistic. Explains this well. In any case, it's not particularly because people detest the image of a child being harmed, although they do dislike it more than that of an adult man being harmed.