Consent is not complicated

legalfling.io

I’m sick and tired of the idiots on the Internet and on TV, who keep babbling about how “nowadays you can’t even hug a woman without harassing her” or how “in some countries you now need a written consent form before having sex” (like in the fake post below or in this 9gag post). Someone even created https://legalfling.io/ that uses blockchain to sign such a form...

It’s all bullshit. Consent is not at all a complicated issue!

In John Oliver’s words: “Consent is like boxing – if one of you didn’t fully agree to that, the other one is committing a crime”.

And there’s really not nuch to add there, the analogy seems to work for every situation.

If you want to stop boxing in the middle of the fight – you have every right to do so, and if the other person ignores that and beats you up anyway, it’s a crime.

If somebody is so drunk that they can’t even stand or think straight, then no matter how much they tell you they would like to have a friendly fight – it’s not sport anymore, it’s battery.

If you see they aren’t enthusiastic about it, but they agree to fight with you for whatever reason (their friends making them, or whatever) – they didn’t actually consent to it, don’t fight with them.

If they are members of some sport association, it doens’t mean they have to fight every time their trainer wants them to – just like spouses can’t make each other have sex just because they’re married.

If we have no problem understanding consensual beating, why do we pretend to be confused by a concept of consensual sex?

A photo of me

About the author

Hi! I'm Andrea (they/them). I tell computers what to do, both for a living and for fun, I'm also into blogging, writing and photography. I'm trying to make the world just a little bit better: more inclusive, more rational and more just.