*sniffle* I'm so proud. Our very first troll... Our little web site is getting all grown up.

But seriously. This is such boilerplate misogynist bullshit that I don't even know where to start out. It's like trying to debunk someone's claim that the earth is hollow and houses Nazi UFO's. The basic assertions are so far out, so completely divorced from consensual reality that the two people might as well be talking completely different languages. In the above example, the two could agree that there's something called the Earth, and there's people called Nazis, but that's about it.

Maybe the best place to start here is the idea of consent. Consent is always revocable. Even if a woman goes to a bar hoping that by 11:00 she'll be on her back getting fucked hard, she can look around the bar, decide that she'd rather catch up on her Tivo watching, and walk out again. Even if she goes home with a guy, planning to have sex with him, she might decide that he's a creep halfway there and hail a cab. Even if she winds up naked on his bed, legs wide open and just burning to have him fuck her pussy, mouth and tits, she can change her mind because he refuses to wear a condom, because he insists on fucking her in the ass, because she feels uncomfortable for some reason, or just because.

This isn't an idea of consent that's unique to sex, or to some mistakenly chivalrous conception of women; it's the same when you go to a doctor or a lawyer, or engage in any other complex relationship. With every step in medical treatment or a legal action, you need to keep on being informed about what's going to happen and consent to it.

Guys like our troll up here are completely invested in the virgin/whore idea of female sexuality. If she's not chaste, if she's interested in sex, she's essentially signed an immutable contract to be used, and god help her if she decides she doesn't like it. I'm constantly amazed by how many men (and women) continue to cling to ideas like this. Maybe I shouldn't be, but goddamn me, I am. And as hateful as these ideas are, I feel kind of sorry for our troll and his compatriots, because such intense hatred for women's sexuality can't exist without a corresponding hatred for your own sexuality. Male sexuality is typically seen as a corrupting influence on men that has to be held in check by chaste women. Paradoxically, as vile as it is, sexuality is also seen as the source of male strength and virtue, so the only possible solution is to direct it towards women who become tainted by their lack of chastity. It's a weird, impossible cycle to keep going through, and toxic to all involved. I feel sorry for anyone who lives in a world where this kind of hurtfulness can make sense.

Blog: Literate Perversions

“Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then finally y