misandry-mermaid

One of the weirdest things about people who get mad at the idea of “Teach men not to rape” is just… why not?  If you already know not to rape and what consent means, what does it take away from your life to be reminded again?  We spend countless hours in school learning things, some of which we already know.  It’s been demonstrated time and time again that many people don’t understand that consent can be conditional, that consent can be withdrawn after it’s already been given, that not all rape is physically forced or violent, that it counts as rape if it’s your intimate partner or someone you’ve consented to sex with in the past….  we KNOW that people misunderstand the meaning of rape and what true consent looks like.  And not just rapists; politicians, teachers, parents, judges.  So what is the harm of teaching those things?  Don’t the pros, of having a society in which people understand the line between consent and rape, VASTLY outweigh the whatever imagined negative impact this could have?  When I hear guys protest the concept of “teach men not to rape”, the underlying message I get is “It’s easier not to be held accountable for your actions when you can claim ignorance as to how they were wrong.”

zuiyomaru

See, if you teach men that getting someone drunk so that you can have sex with them is rape, or that coercing somebody into sex is rape, or that consent can be revoked at any time, they look back at their own actions and think “But that means I’m a rapist! But I can’t be a rapist because I’m a good person! Therefore, consent education is bad!” They couch it in terms of “men already know not to rape,” but deep down it’s because they know that if everyone knows about consent, everyone will know that their actions are inexcusable.