Posts Tagged Yes Means Yes

Silence_does_not_equal_consent
By Maya Dusenbery • 10 years ago

No, California’s new affirmative consent law will not redefine most sex as rape

Rape is when you have sex with someone who doesn’t want to have sex with you.

I feel compelled to offer that reminder because after reading Jonathan Chait’s dire warning about California colleges’ “radical” new affirmative consent standard, you might find yourself confused. He claims that the new law will legally redefine “most, and possibly nearly all, sexual encounters” as rape.

It will not. Rape is defined by an absence of consent. I would argue–and I don’t think Chait would disagree–that, ethically, that has always been the case. And thanks to decades of feminist efforts to reform rape laws, that’s increasingly the legal standard too.

Rape is when you have sex with someone who doesn’t want to have sex with you.

I feel compelled to offer that reminder because after reading Jonathan Chait’s dire warning about California colleges’ “radical” new affirmative ...
By Alexandra Brodsky • 10 years ago

No, California’s new affirmative consent law doesn’t expand the carceral state

This week, as many advocates cheered California’s passage of its new “yes means yes” law, gender studies professor Laurie Essig published a critique on The Chronicle‘s blog. I share her skepticism of carceral feminisms that place false and violent hope in the criminal justice system to deliver gender justice, but she is wrong to condemn the statute on these grounds: strong civil laws to combat sexual violence disturb, rather than reinforce, our reliance on incarceration.

Firstly, and mostly simply, SB 967 is not a criminal statute and will have no effect on criminal adjudication. Instead, it clarifies the definition of consent that colleges and universities must use when adjudicating sexual violence within their internal ...

This week, as many advocates cheered California’s passage of its new “yes means yes” law, gender studies professor Laurie Essig published a critique on The Chronicle‘s blog. I share her 
By Maya Dusenbery • 10 years ago

California now has the nation’s first “affirmative consent” law

We’re giving a very enthusiastic “hell yes” to this news. The so-called “yes means yes” bill passed by the California state legislature last month, which establishes a standard of affirmative consent on college campuses in the state, has been signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown.

 Gov. Jerry Brown announced Sunday that he has signed a bill that makes California the first in the nation to define when “yes means yes” and adopt requirements for colleges to follow when investigating sexual assault reports.

State lawmakers last month approved SB967 by Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, as states and universities across the U.S. are under pressure to change how they handle rape allegations. Campus sexual assault ...

We’re giving a very enthusiastic “hell yes” to this news. The so-called “yes means yes” bill passed by the California state legislature last month, which establishes a standard of affirmative consent on ...

trent mays
By Alexandra Brodsky • 11 years ago

Quick Hit: How to not be Trent Mays

One of the strangest things I encounter in anti-violence work is the number of people (usually young men) who are desperately afraid that, if we start really cracking down on rape, they will end up in jail. Their concern doesn’t seem to be that they’ve already raped someone, but that they might in the future despite their very best efforts–as though sexual assault were some kind of unfortunate accident nice boys happen upon occasionally.

Thomas MacAulay Millar at the Yes Means Yes blog posted a great essay yesterday urging teenage boys nervous about Steubenville to calm the fuck down. He doesn’t urge them to be any less vigilant in their concern for consent, but to recognize that their behavior (including, ...

One of the strangest things I encounter in anti-violence work is the number of people (usually young men) who are desperately afraid that, if we start really cracking down on rape, they will end up in ...
By Vanessa • 13 years ago

Quick Hit: New research on gender differences and casual sex

What would your reaction be if a complete stranger walks up to you in the middle of the day and asks if you’d like to have casual sex?

Thomas over at Yes Means Yes has some fantastic analysis on new research done around a study that tested this very interaction. This kind of (cisnormative and heteronormative) research is generally used to attempt to prove that women hate sex, but this paper reveals that the findings are a lot more complicated and really important to note — that women’s responses are actually based on their risk of harm, and an anticipated lack of pleasure. It’s really worth the whole read.

What would your reaction be if a complete stranger walks up to you in the middle of the day and asks if you’d like to have casual sex?

Thomas over at Yes Means Yes has some ...