Koko, the gorilla famous for her sign communication skills and her relationship with comedian Robin Williams, joined the “me too” movement yesterday by announcing that she, too, had been sexually assaulted “three times last night and twice this morning” by a banana.
While Koko’s vocabulary was unfamiliar with sexual harassment terms, she impressed animal behavior experts by improvising “sexual assault” with a penetration sign followed by a sign her trainer uses when Koko’s playing is too physically dangerous.
“I’m just learning ASL, so I could be wrong about this” wrote Koko fan AJ Bent in the YouTube comments, “but it looks like Koko just said she was sexually assaulted three times last night and twice this morning by a banana…yuck, gross!”
“The banana sexually assaulted me three times last night and twice this morning”.
As of this evening, it appears no one has explained to Koko that masturbation is different from sexual assault.
“In her mind, she just thinks all these women are coming forward to talk about rough sex they’ve had. That’s why she’s so fascinated and obsessed with this…she’s turned on by it.”
“I think her trainer is right now trying to figure out how to explain the difference between forced and consensual sex without traumatizing her,” said Dr. Donald Burns, professor of animal behavior at Columbia University. “These abstract concepts can be difficult or impossible for gorillas to understand. In her mind, she just thinks all these women are coming forward to talk about rough sex they’ve had. That’s why she’s so fascinated and obsessed with this…she’s turned on by it.”
