Fox Host Stuart Varney says “The real story here now is, the law is now controlling intimate relationships between men and women”

Fox Business host Stuart Varney on Thursday demonstrated an alarming lack of understanding surrounding the painfully simple principle of consent in a sexual relationship, calling the “Yes Means Yes movement” an all-out war on unjustifiably indicting men for sexual assault.

Varney was responding initially to the Porcellian Club, one of Harvard’s oldest and secretive all-male clubs, and a statement it released earlier this week arguing that women should not be admitted to the club because it would increase the number of men accused and ultimately charged with sexual assault.

In a statement released to Harvard’s The Crimson, Porcellian Club Graduate Board President Charles M. Storey said “Given our policies, we are mystified as to why the current administration feels that forcing our club to accept female members would reduce the incidence of sexual assault on campus. Forcing single gender organizations to accept members of the opposite sex could potentially increase, not decrease, the potential for sexual misconduct.”

The quote was eerily reminiscent of a tweet from GOP front-runner Donald Trump regarding sexual assault in the military, where he proceeded to blame women for sexual assault because “what did they expect?” when they signed up to serve alongside men.

26,000 unreported sexual assults in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 7, 2013

Stripping aside the absurdity that the presence of a female does not cause sexual assault – predators of any gender who lack the basic understanding and respect for consent do – Varney decided on his show Thursday morning to side unsurprisingly with the 225-year-old club.

“If a man in this day in age holds the hand of a woman on a date without first asking permission, that is an assault. In come the lawyers,” Varney explained.

“The real story here now is, the law is now controlling intimate relationships between men and women,” he continued, seemingly unaware that his party has spent the last 50 years trying to control a woman’s intimate relationship with her own body, “Lawyers and the law should not be in the middle of an intimate dating relationship between the sexes.”

As though statement like that were not absurd enough, Varney then went on to rant that the “no means no” rule had morphed into what he called the “Yes Means Yes movement” which, despite coming from his mouth satirically nonetheless sounds like a great slogan.

“The young lady must be asked, may I hold your hand? Failure to ask that question where she says yes is an assault,” lamented Varney, still apparently struggling with the idea that touching a woman without her consent is still illegal.

Yes does mean yes, Stuart. Anything other than that means no.

It’s a painfully simple concept.