The Criminalization of Male Sexuality

I'm glad that I'm too old and decrepit to court today's young woman. Some of the behavior of my youth would no doubt be considered criminal by today's evolving "standards." The story from the United Kingdom is that men must prove a woman said yes. We are edging closer to a world in which, in Ezra Klein's wishful words, "men need to feel a cold spike of fear when they begin a sexual encounter."

A modern liberal like Ezra Klein hates "yes means yes" laws because they erode due process for the accused. Presumption of innocence is a cornerstone of our legal system, yet people like Klein support tossing it aside.

The Director of Public Prosecutions in the U.K. is a joyless scold named Alison Saunders. Her contention is that rape victims should no longer be "blamed" by society if they are too drunk to consent to sex. What, exactly, is "too drunk to consent to sex?" What is the exact blood alcohol level in which consent may no longer be freely given, and how can this be proved?

Feminists have been arguing for years that women possess agency, that they can make decisions regarding abortion and family planning and dropping ordnance on a target. Yet we remove all aspects of agency from a woman who has sexual contact if she decides later that it was unwanted.

Saunders said that, "consent to sexual activity is not a grey area." Yes it is. That is why they always parrot high numbers of purported rapes in comparison to reported rapes, because consent was given in a gray area. The article contends that there are around 85,000 rapes each year in the U.K., but last year only 15,670 were reported to police. Because there is a gray area.

There are many troubling aspects of the new rape guidelines. Prosecutors must examine whether "the complainant may be financially or otherwise dependent on their alleged rapist." In other words, the fact that he works and she doesn't is going to be used as evidence against him.

Another facet prosecutors are being instructed to examine, is whether the alleged rapist "held a position of power over the potential victim - as a teacher, an employer, a doctor..." Women have always been attracted to high-status men. Women always try to marry up to someone of higher status. Well now, just being a high-status male is going to be one more strike against a man in the dock, accused of rape.

There will be added bearing given to whether a woman is capable of giving consent because of "mental health problems." What kind of mental health problems? If a woman is bipolar and having a manic phase, she could consent to sex, and then in her depression phase, regret it and report it. How could a man possibly certify whether this woman is mentally ill?

Near the end of this article, there is a quote from Sarah Green, director of End Violence Against Women Coalition, in which she says, that "men in positions of power target and abuse vulnerable victims." All this conversation is about male perpetrators and female victims, but women abuse power, too, and target the vulnerable.

Like here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Maybe women sometimes do abuse their authority?