Just received:
Hi Everyone,
Why are we teaching young women to cry rape? In many countries, including Australia, feminists are pushing for sexual consent courses to be introduced into schools which teach girls that ‘regret sex’ is rape, that they have a right to withdraw consent after the event, and that if they have anything to drink before sexual activity they are incapable of giving consent and their partners are committing sexual assault. This dangerous rubbish is playing with the heads of young women and setting young men up for real trouble.
This is all part of the campaign to promote enthusiastic consent, or ‘yes means yes’ laws, which require men to seek consent for every stage in sexual activity. I made a video last year, talking to Murdoch University law lecturer Lorraine Finlay, about the absurdity of promoting laws which would make most normal sexual activity illegal, given that most of us have no desire to constantly verbalize enthusiastic consent throughout lovemaking. Yet in NSW, the Law Reform Commission is currently investigating this possibility and is being bombarded with submissions from women’s groups arguing that not only should enthusiastic consent become law but the same principles should be taught in sex education courses in schools.
This week I spoke to sex educator Tracy Sedman who is one of the people responsible for educating NSW teachers and health workers about the new sexual consent courses. Tracy is very concerned about the push in this direction, and keen to encourage people to speak out about the risks for young men from teaching girls to reframe their sexual experiences in this way. I’m sure you will be intrigued by a video we are showing you, which is an extraordinary example of how easily young women can be encouraged to redefine an unsatisfactory sexual interaction as ‘rape’, urged on by their friends. What’s really scary is this video, The Morning After, has already been seen by over 6 million people. That’s an awful lot of young women now primed to judge their male partners as sexually aggressive. It will make you very worried for upcoming generations of young men facing an increasingly hostile dating world.
Here’s the video. I hope you will promote it so that more people are aware of this worrying development. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj8qHXvg-jk
Sexual consent courses spell trouble for men Bettina Arndt talks to sex educator Tracy Sedman about new sexual consent courses teaching girls that ‘regret sex’ is sexual assault and consent can be withd…
Take action
As I promised last week, I want to encourage you all not to just tut-tut about what’s happening here but take action. Here’s the link to a survey that the NSW Law Reform Commission is running, seeking feedback on proposed changes. It is very legalistic but it would be great if as many people as possible could have ago at this. https://bettina.social/NSWLRC-ConsentSurvey
NSW Law Reform Commission – Consent Review Survey bettina.social
Take this survey powered by surveymonkey.com. Create your own surveys for free.
Parents everywhere should be investigating to see if sexual consent is being taught in their children’s schools and ask to see the content. Try to get other parents involved because a group of concerned parents carries more clout and offers protection for your children in case teachers object to your questions.
And all the hundreds of people who have volunteered to help with my various campaigns, please keep an eye out for media stories, public discussions around this issue and speak out. Write letters to local politicians, join in online discussions. The feminists promoting this rubbish are dominating the debate because we are letting them silence us.
Finally, some comments about my videos.
There were quite a few comments on my last video about the fact that I didn’t allow Igor to speak freely and controlled the conversation by summarising some of his story. My problem is we have to keep our videos short because we know very few of you watch anything much longer than 20 minutes. Igor is wonderfully verbose when he is given free rein and I couldn’t afford to let him just talk because we would never have got to the guts of the story – his treatment in the batterer’s group. Yes, it’s great to ask open ended questions if you have an audience prepared to watch long videos or you have the resources to endlessly edit down highlights of long interviews. We’re running this whole thing on a shoestring here, and I’m trying not to overburden my wonderful producer Scott Korman who helps me around his day job. If we can add to the generous people supporting my videos, we’ll get those extra resources and I’ll have the flexibility to let interviews just flow.
Until next time, Tina
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I put together this email before setting off on fun week cycling on one of New famous rail trails but sadly, in first hour of my trip, I managed to slid off a frosty bridge into a gully. So now I have two broken ribs and a broken collar bone, and twenty stitches to nasty gash in my leg. No doubt I will be featuring my arm in a sling next time you see me. Oh well, I still have one working leg and one arm so we soldier on!
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