At Ohio State, you need a lawyer now if you want to make-out or … *chill* have sex.
My grandmother used to tell the young girls that “silence was consent” – meaning that young boys and men need to be told “no” out loud and in no uncertain terms. Seems logical and if that didn’t work – everything else that happened was assault.
Just common sense, which we’ve apparently run completely out of.
My guy Howard Portnoy alerted us to a story out of Ohio State University that makes me glad I’m not young and that takes a whole lot, my friends, because there’s nothing great about getting older outside of the fact that I can just mock political correctness now, instead of having to live it – for the most part.
They’re always trying to fight nature and this time they’ve really gotten silly about it. At OSU, to avoid being guilty of “sexual assault” or “sexual violence,” kids have to not only agree they both want to have sex, they have to agree on WHY – even if it’s just making out.
I know what you’re thinking: What if they have reasons? Yeah. Well, the story is at Liberty Unyielding, so read it yourself:
There used to be a joke that women need a reason to have sex, while men only need a place. Does this policy reflect that juvenile mindset? Such a requirement baffles some women in the real world: a female member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights told me, “I am still trying to wrap my mind around the idea of any two intimates in the world agreeing as to ‘why.’”
Ohio State’s sexual-assault policy, which effectively turns some welcome touching into “sexual assault,” may be the product of its recent Resolution Agreement with the Office for Civil Rights (where I used to work) to resolve a Title IX complaint over its procedures for handling cases of sexual harassment and assault.
That agreement, on page 6, requires the University to “provide consistent definitions of and guidance about the University terms ‘sexual harassment,’ ‘consent,’ ‘sexual violence,’ ‘sexual assault,’ and ‘sexual misconduct.’” It is possible that Ohio State will broaden its already overbroad “sexual assault” definition even further: Some officials at Ohio State, like its Student Wellness Center, advocate defining all sex or “kissing” without “verbal,” “enthusiastic” consent as “sexual assault.”
Ohio State applies an impractical “agreement” requirement to not just sex, but also to a much broader category of “touching” that is sexual (or perhaps romantic?) in nature. First, it states that “sexual assault is any form of non-consensual sexual activity. Sexual assault includes all unwanted sexual acts from intimidation to touching to various forms of penetration and rape.” Then, it states that “Consent is a knowing and voluntary verbal or non-verbal agreement between both parties to participate in each and every sexual act. . .Conduct will be considered “non-consensual” if no clear consent . . . is given. . . .Effective consent can be given by words or actions so long as the words or actions create a mutual understanding between both parties regarding the conditions of the sexual activity–ask, ‘do both of us understand and agree regarding the who, what, where, when, why, and how this sexual activity will take place?’”
This “agreement” requirement is impractical, because unlike sex (where there is generally an implicit agreement among the participants before it can even happen, since sex is difficult to do without active cooperation), no one agrees in advance – verbally or non-verbally – to have someone touch them in a particular place while making out. No one ever says, “may I touch your breast” before doing it while making out. They may (and usually do) welcome (and enjoy) it after it occurs, but they don’t specifically “agree” to it in advance (indeed, they may have expected the touch to occur in a different place, even if they found it pleasant).
The very process of making out is a gradual escalation of intimacy step by step, without constant discussion or an endless series of agreements…
I have trouble figuring out why any woman would want to make out with me, but every once in a while they do. Maybe I’m just afraid to ask them why they would want to kiss a frog when they damn well know I’m not turning into a Prince anytime soon.
Or maybe there just aren’t enough gentleman left in this world or any dads or grandmothers to teach these idiots when they can and can’t move on to the next step without everyone’s lawyers present?
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email Rodney Lee Conover: kowenhoven@gmail.com
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