No doubt my my idiot co-worker is among the men who are fuming because of the new ‘No means No’ laws that are coming into effect on Tuesday 1/1/2008 in NSW, Australia.
Cara at The Curvature sums it up rather nicely:
So basically, men in NSW can no longer legally “believe” there has been consent with absolutely no basis for doing so. Unless they want to risk rape charges, they now actually have to make sure that the women they’re fucking want to fuck them back. They’ll have to do horrible things like communicate with their sexual partners and stop to find out what’s wrong when a woman is not actively engaging with and responding to their advances. They’ll be forced to ruin the romance by saying totally unsexy things like “do you want me?” and “do you like that?” instead of just shoving it in and grunting and thrusting away like there’s not another person there.
In short, a legislative body has finally decided that men deserve to be held to the standards of basic ethics and humanity. And a large section of men are mightily upset about that.
And now, of course, we have to wait and see how the law will actually be applied in court and whether it will result in more rapists being found guilty. We can only hope.
I agree. Fingers-crossed this legislation will inform all those poor wittle potential rapists who aren’t sure “where the line is” that there is no excuse to rape, ever. And hopefully it will mean less humiliation in court for the survivors. And more rapists convicted.
Just when I thought there were few places on God’s green earth more backward in understanding than southern Minnesota you let us know about New South Wales. Thanks for the post! I try to keep in mind that every little step is still a step forward.
Im quite sure the parliamentarians discussed this issue to the full before passing this law. There will now be an Act that has regulations and I m sure like everything else the beaurocrats have a form to sign that permits consent with both signatures and witnmessed of course. So after a night of wining and dining and making sure yoou have the form at your fingertips and a JP handy whats the problem.The only problem I see is that from the moment of desire to the actual foreplay etc may be time lapse of about three days. Thank god Im in W.A. the passionate state it seems.
Actually, given that some men seriously don’t understand when something is rape and something is not I am glad to be living in NSW. You know, the state where womens’ consent is actually important.
As the NSW Attorney-General said: