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Thank goodness California has come to their rescue.

Some people say that California’s “affirmative consent” law goes too far. But what these archaic misogynists don’t realize is that adult women are just not strong enough to articulate what they want in sexual situations.

A lot of laws say that sexual assault is forcing sex on someone who said no or who is unable to say no. But here’s the problem: We need to realize that women are, in general, not able to say no. It’s too hard.


Oh, and by the way, just one yes isn’t enough. If a woman suddenly becomes uncomfortable during an intimate encounter, she certainly won’t be assertive enough to tell the man without his asking her first. Thankfully, California realizes this, and the law demands that the affirmations of consent be “ongoing.”

Some people may think that once a woman has been dating someone for a few years, she will be courageous enough to say what she wants sexually. Some men may think that it is okay to go from kissing their girlfriend to more explicit sexual contact without expressly asking for permission, that this is the normal progression of sexual activity, and perhaps even romantic. But it’s not romantic. It’s sexual assault.

Thankfully, California realizes this, too, and the law specifies that having a prior relationship does not change anything. Never again will these women have to deal with their longtime boyfriends’ going from kissing to more — an experience no doubt traumatic to the weak psyche of a woman — without explicitly asking for permission first.



In fact, women are so weak that even witnessing the depiction of a potentially unwanted kiss is harmful. That’s why feminists in France are trying to get that awful World War II statue of a sailor kissing a woman removed from a bridge in Normandy, where it was placed to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day. After all, the photographer who captured the image on which the statue is based said that he never saw the sailor explicitly ask the woman for consent before kissing her — and that makes the statue nothing more than the disgusting representation of a sexual assault in progress.

Sure, it’s not clear who the woman in the photo was, and none of the women who might be her have ever complained about the incident or said they felt violated. But we must remember that women are not capable of deciding what is and is not desired sexual behavior.


That’s because many women don’t even realize how brainwashed they are. It starts early on, with insidious scenes in childhood films and books. I can’t imagine how many young girls have been unknowingly traumatized by the kissing scene in Lady and the Tramp. Having a mouth full of spaghetti is no excuse to not ask for verbal consent before kissing someone, and too many women don’t realize that.


Unfortunately, this law applies only to students at California colleges that receive state funding. But let’s hope that the rest of the country soon follows suit. Because California isn’t the only state where women are helpless.

— Katherine Timpf is a reporter at National Review Online.