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By Joshua David • 9 years ago

Yes, your friend may be a rapist

This post originally appeared on powderroom.jezebel.com. Republished with permission.

My best friend, Richie (not his real name), is one of the sweetest guys you’ll ever meet. He’s kind, caring, and as insistent upon consent as anyone I know. I would drop everything to help him at a moment’s notice and I’ve never known him to be anything but entirely honest. To my knowledge, Richie has never been accused of sexual assault. Were he to be accused, I would be shocked and I would find it very difficult to believe.

None of that matters. Richie most certainly is capable of rape. All my other friends are capable of rape. All your friends, fathers, brothers, are capable of rape. I’m capable of rape. I feel like my knowledge of consent is strong and I’m insistent on an emphatic yes rather than “not no,” but from an objective viewpoint no man that is physically capable of rape should be considered incapable of it.