Thanks to the increasing hysteria
about a “rape culture” we don’t have and irrational definitions of what
constitutes sexual assault, sex on American campuses is becoming so fraught
with bureaucratic oversight and legal landmines that students – especially
males – may end up settling for celibacy.
Panicking about how to manage a
rumored tsunami of on-campus sexual assault allegations, college administrators
are constructing ever more layered legal protections. But cultural critic and
intellectual provocateur Camille Paglia recently asserted
that the “majority of campus incidents being carelessly described as sexual
assault” these days are not “rape
rape,” as Whoopi Goldberg put it, but merely “oafish hookup melodramas, arising
from mixed signals and imprudence on both sides.”
One app developer hopes to make those
mixed signals a thing of the past. The New
York Post reports
that Good2Go, free for both iPhones and Androids, “aims to solve the problem of
date rape and sexual assault by making consent as easy as pressing a button.” Well,
perhaps not quite that easy. Check
out the awkward, sitcom-worthy, passion-killing process a couple using Good2Go must
go through to ensure a bout of litigation-free lovemaking:
Picture yourself as a student in an
intimate moment with a partner. You both sense that sexual congress, an archaic
euphemism that does not refer to
political sex scandals, is imminent. But first, you must break the spell to explain
to him or her that you have to participate in a phone approval process to
protect you both legally. Hand them your phone, on which the Good2Go app poses
the question, “Are we Good2Go?” They choose a response and hand the phone back.
“No thanks” is the answer you likely will get once your partner realizes you
actually have an app on your phone to clear the way for sex.
The response “I’m Good2Go” is the
green light – but only after your partner inputs a self-assessment of how drunk
he or she is. If “Pretty wasted” is selected (although it’s not clear how a
pretty wasted person can even find that button), the answer automatically switches
to “No thanks,” and again, you’re out of luck. However, if “Sober,” “Mildly
intoxicated” or “Intoxicated but Good2Go” are entered, then the app will ask
for a phone number to confirm their identity. Then and only then can you both
rest easy and get busy.
Unless you live in California, that
is, where a new law, the first in the nation, states
that “affirmative consent must be ongoing throughout a sexual activity and can
be revoked at any time.” So the green light to get started is only the
beginning. The law will lay down stiff penalties for colleges that don’t deal
swiftly and seriously with accusations of sexual assault, so any
misinterpretation during your frisky business could suddenly become very risky
business.
Rape culture anxiety on campus
doesn’t end there. The University of Michigan has expanded its definition of
“sexual violence” to include such non-violence as “withholding sex and
affection” and “discounting the partner’s feelings regarding sex.” Expect other
overreacting colleges to follow suit.
But there is something more than
just the fear of legal action going on here. Robert Stacy McCain believes that
feminist academics are behind what he calls an
“Orwellian project” of not only modifying student sexual behavior, but controlling
the way students talk and even think about sex. Janet Bloomfield of A Voice For Men claims that men are the
real targets of this misandrist agenda, as “normal relationship behaviors are
pathologized and framed as abuse when MEN do them.” Meanwhile, women are trained
“to interpret normal sexual and relationship behaviors as abuse and encouraged
to have the young men they are partnering with sanctioned by the college.”
Whatever is fueling the rape
culture mania, I agree with Camille Paglia that “colleges should stick to
academics” and “real crimes should be reported to the police, not to haphazard
and ill-trained campus grievance committees.” A more serious campus problem,
Paglia warns, is that naïve young women no longer “understand the fragility of
civilization and the constant nearness of savage natures,” and thus are easier
targets for seriously violent predators. Her solution? “The price of women’s
modern freedoms is personal responsibility for vigilance and self-defense.”
Unfortunately, any call for
personal responsibility these days is usually met with charges of “rape apologist”
and “blaming the victim,” which solve nothing and perpetuate the victimization
of women. Nevertheless – and this is not to absolve men of their responsibility – both “oafish hookup melodramas” and actual
sex crimes could be more effectively reduced if female students avoid behaviors
that put them at risk for sexual assault. That includes: not letting alcohol
make you vulnerable; maintaining clear, open dialogue with their male sex
partner from beginning to end; and being mentally and physically prepared to
confront the “savage nature” of predators. To echo Paglia, that is the price for
women’s sexual freedom in today’s hookup culture.
(This article originally appeared here on Acculturated, 10/7/14)
