The War Against Human Nature: What Does ‘Unreasonable Pressure’ Mean?

Posted on | May 7, 2015 | 74 Comments

The Sexual Assault Task Force at the University of Kansas has some very strange (and by “very strange” of course I mean, typical feminist) ideas about what “sexual assault” involves:

Under “Recommendations for Policy and Process Improvement,” the task force recommends clarifying the definition of “incapacitation” in order to differentiate between “wrongful” and “permissible” conduct.
A university spokeswoman told The College Fix by email that the school defines incapacitation as an “inability to make informed, rational judgments.”
When substances are involved, “incapacitation” refers to how “alcohol or drugs consumed” can affect decision-making, including consequences and judgments, the spokeswoman said, responding on behalf of the Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access. . . .

(Fact: Young people commonly get drunk or high for the specific purpose of lowering their inhibitions, thus to facilitate or enhance sexual activity that they would be too afraid or embarrassed to initiate or enjoy if they were sober. This is what was meant by the old joke in which the “mating call of the Southern sorority girl” was described as, “Woo-hoo! I am SO drunk, y’all!”)

The Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access uses “incapacitation” as part of its multifaceted definition of sexual violence: “Taking sexual advantage of another person without consent, including causing or attempting to cause the incapacitation of another person.” . . .

(Fact: The legal drinking age is 21. If university officials are worried that “incapacitation” due to drunkenness is a contributing factor in sexual assault cases — as it obviously often is — the most obvious expedient would be to crack down on underage drinking by students. Yet because administrators at almost every university tolerate illegal underage drinking by freshmen and sophomores, we are told there is a “rape crisis” on campus when it usually seems more like a “drunk teenage sex crisis” on campus.)

The Kansas task force also acknowledges the vagueness in defining coercion as “unreasonable pressure for sexual access” because it does not distinguish between “coercive” versus “non-coercive sexual conduct.” . . .
The Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access uses the word “unwelcome” several times to describe prohibited behavior: One of those is “unwelcome efforts to develop a romantic or sexual relationship” or “unwelcome physical touching or closeness.”

You can read the rest of that.

Here, in the effort to add “coercion” to the definition of sexual assault, we see the real agenda behind feminism’s “rape culture” discourse. To put it bluntly, it is an attempt to criminalize male heterosexuality.

If you have studied feminist writing about sexuality, you know that they stretch the word “coercion” beyond recognition, so that male behavior which is entirely normal, customary and lawful is depicted as part of a “continuum of sexual aggression.” A presentation called “Understanding the Continuum of Sexual Violence” describes it this way:

Sexual violence is supported by the attitude or viewpoint that women are sex objects, and often takes the form of suggestive looks or actions, sexist comments, and sexual exploitation. All too often our society treats objectification of women as a cultural norm that does no real harm. Men whistling at and calling out to women on the street is tolerated, jokes or rude comments are the daily fare of talk shows and other media venues, and sexually pornographic material proliferates under the guise of freedom of speech and expression. All too often, none of this is considered “criminal” but is part of a largely accepted societal attitude towards women.
The level to which our society accepts sexual objectification creates a foundation where this becomes the absolute value of women.

What is involved in this, you see, is the creation of a connect-the-dots theory about “rape culture” in which anything that is deemed offensive, from “suggestive looks” to “jokes or rude comments,” is construed as part of a “societal attitude” that contributes to sexual assault. By this means, every double-entendre in an old Marx Brothers comedy becomes part of “rape culture,” while every vintage pin-up is also implicated in this “continuum” because it involves “sexual objectification.”

So now, in attempting to codify “coercion” and “harassment” as part of university policy, we find ambiguous phrases like “unreasonable pressure for sexual access” — how much “pressure” is “reasonable”? — as well as the use of the word “unwelcome” to describe “efforts to develop a romantic or sexual relationship” or “physical touching or closeness.”

Stipulate that some guys have deficient social skills, and are not good at “reading signals,” as we used to say, while other guys simply don’t know how to deal with rejection. Especially when we are talking about young guys (teenage boys, really, 18 or 19 years old, and away from home for the first time) it is inevitable that many of them will make awkward (“unwelcome”) attempts to “develop a romantic or sexual relationship.” This is inevitable, as I say, and unless you are engaged in a War Against Human Nature, you expect young women to be prepared to deal with male attention that is “unwelcome,” as well as “pressure” that is “unreasonable.”

Feminist ideology, however, demonizes male sexuality in such a way as to relieve women of all responsibility in negotiating the ordinary difficulties of normal sex life. Any attempt to advise females about avoiding sexual danger is condemned by feminists as “blaming the victim.” When confronted with the typical “he-said/she-said” cases that are cited as evidence of a campus “rape epidemic” — which usually involve what seems to be an unhappy misunderstanding between two drunk teenagers — your effort to discuss the ambiguities without presuming the guilt of the accused male could result in you being branded a “rape apologist.”

An 18-year-old college freshman starts knocking back tequila shots at a party, grinding on the dance floor with any guy who strikes her fancy and — surprise! surprise! — wakes up naked the next morning beside a complete stranger, with only the vaguest recollection of how she got there or why she’s feeling so sore and sticky. It’s impossible under the circumstances to prove she was raped, but her predicament (alas, too common in the binge-drinking “hookup culture” that prevails on many campuses) can be interpreted by a school disciplinary tribunal as sexual misconduct by the guy who “got lucky” with the drunk freshman and he may face expulsion as a penalty.

Is there a problem with sexual behavior on university and college campuses? Yes. It involves porn. It involves booze. It involves a decline of Judeo-Christian morality among youth. Even if you’re an atheist, even if you think illegal underage drinking is acceptable, even if you approve the Internet-driven flood of pornographic filth into the impressionable minds of adolescents — even granting all those caveats and exemptions for liberalism’s see-no-evil attitudes about such things, can’t we agree that this convergence of harmful influences creates a potentially dangerous sexual climate?

Although I know “Jackie” at UVA lied about being gang-raped at Phi Kappa Psi, I would never want my daughter to set foot in a frat party, or any other situation where college boys are getting drunk. Whether or not any of them could be trusted sober, they damned sure can’t be trusted when they’re drunk, and any college girl foolish enough to think otherwise is likely to wake up sore and sticky the next morning. You can go chant slogans at a “Take Back the Night” rally if you want, but you’re never going to win a War Against Human Nature.

Meanwhile, the attempt to criminalize male heterosexuality — which is what feminism’s “rape culture” discourse is really about — is likely to have consequences that neither the feminists nor their opponents can anticipate. Culture shifts often operate like Newton’s Third Law of Motion, where there is an equal and opposite effect. The degrading influence of pornography has inspired truly disgusting behavior among some young people (see paragraphs 16, 18 and 26 in the Nungesser v. Columbia lawsuit). Yet if that is the “equal” effect of the Newtonian equation, we can also perceive an opposite effect in the noticeable increase of women preferring lesbian relationships to such painful degradation in the contemporary “hookup culture.” We may observe that Emma Dawson, who was an ardent advocate of “sex-positive” feminism at Wesleyan University, thought it was a “good opportunity to remind everyone I’m queer” after she gained notoriety by making a public issue of her herpes infection.

The word “queer” has been popularized to include a wide range of sexual behaviors, so that a “queer feminist” is not necessarily a lesbian. Because she recounts various heterosexual exploits in her herpes narrative, we may presume that “queer” for Dawson signifies she’s a sort of bisexual Ado Annie. So, she’s a herpes-infected 22-year-old queer who paid $47,972 a year to get a bachelor of arts in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Probably a Democrat, too.

Gotta be pretty bad out there, if any guy would resort to “unreasonable pressure for sexual access” to girls like that.

“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools . . .”

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Category: Crime, Culture, Education, National Offend a Feminist Week, Sex Trouble

Comments

74 Responses to “The War Against Human Nature: What Does ‘Unreasonable Pressure’ Mean?”

RS
May 7th, 2015 @ 7:43 pm

Disclosure: I’m genetically disposed to loathing anything which emanates from Lawrence, Kansas. Morder is closer to heaven thanthat place. However, I did read the whole post. Public universities will continue to run afoul of Title IX even with these pitiful attempts at crafting definitions of proscribed conduct. One of the fundamental precepts of due process is that an accused must be capable of knowing what is being proscribed. You mention the use of the terms “reasonable” and “unreasonable.” It’s quite common to use those terms in civil tort proceedings, but the entity which makes the judgment as to whether conduct is reasonable is a jury of one’s peers, not a star chamber.
theoldsargesays
May 7th, 2015 @ 7:44 pm

>Sexual Assault Task Force
>Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access

Sounds to me like Universities these days are taking their lead from the White House, or is it the other way around?

Either way those two little nomenklatura tells you all you need to know.

“Son, have you ever thought about learning a trade instead of going to college”
RS
May 7th, 2015 @ 7:46 pm

One of those is “unwelcome efforts to develop a romantic or sexual relationship”

BTW, no less an authority than etiquette maven Amy Vanderbilt opined than men should be able to ask a woman out on a date three times. If he is refused three times, then he should presume she’s not interested.
robertstacymccain
May 7th, 2015 @ 7:54 pm

Would “begging on my bended knees” be construed as unreasonable pressure? Because I think most guys are guilty of that at some point in their life.

Baby, baby, baby!
Why you want to treat me this way?
You know I’m still your lover boy,
I still feel the same way.
That’s when she told me a story
About free milk and a cow.
She said, “No hugging, no kissing
Until I get wedding vow.”
My honey, my baby,
Don’t put my love upon no shelf.
She said, “Don’t hand me no lines
And keep your hands to yourself.”

Twenty-six years of marriage later ….
Daniel Freeman
May 7th, 2015 @ 8:03 pm

It’s definitely from the White House. The Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Education has colleges and universities by the short hairs, since if they don’t do as they’re told, they can be declared ineligible for Federal student aid. Of course, then if they obey, they get hammered with lawsuits from railroaded men.

If I were a university president right now, I would be desperately trying to cut costs to the bone, so that I could bring tuition down to where the endowment could support any necessary aid. Focus on the quality of academic instruction and strip everything else down to the bare necessities, so that you can blow a raspberry at the Feds. It’s the only way out of that catch-22.
Zohydro
May 7th, 2015 @ 8:08 pm

“Ado Annie”…

I had to look that up!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Cain%27t_Say_No
The War Against Human Nature: What Does ‘Unreasonable Pressure’ Mean? | Living in Anglo-America
May 7th, 2015 @ 8:26 pm

[…] http://theothermccain.com/2015/05/07/the-war-against-human-nature-what-does-unreasonable-pressure-me… […]
Scottie M.
May 7th, 2015 @ 8:40 pm

Brilliant article. I have bookmarked it for future reference. Radical feminists have been allowed to have too much say in the policy-making process of universities around the country. They’re already instituted “yes means yes” consent policy at California public universities. Their agenda is to expand the definition of rape so much that every woman is a victim and every man is a rapist. Unwanted hugs, cat calls, comments about a woman’s weight or appearance, or even unwanted eye contact are now being labeled rape by feminists. All of this “rape hysteria” has been manufactured by radical feminists, and and anyone who dares get in their way is labeled a rapist or rape sympathizer. Picture below relevant: it’s the average SJW who has been allowed to help shape policy on sexual assault at our universities.
Baltimore Cop accused of biting another man’s testicles while fighting outside a bar on Cinco de Mayo | Batshit Crazy News
May 7th, 2015 @ 9:21 pm

[…] As we know, police relations in Baltimore are not great and it was just Cinco de Mayo, and here is an entry combining both that is also perfect for BSC News… The good news is he was not accused of doing this while on duty… TOM: Drinking has a way of lowering inhibitions… […]
Matt_SE
May 7th, 2015 @ 9:45 pm

I always knew government was poison to any conservative enterprise. I didn’t realize they would one day go too far for the leftists as well.
Their dogma is now so irrational, it’s become a suicide pact.
M. Thompson
May 7th, 2015 @ 9:52 pm

I want to puke.
M. Thompson
May 7th, 2015 @ 9:54 pm

Don’t date on campus guys!

That’s the smartest thing to say. Also, Don’t get involved with radical crazy. It’s easy to see what parts do that, such as almost anything that’s got ‘studies’ in the title (exception: language departments).
DeadMessenger
May 7th, 2015 @ 10:19 pm

You and your damn common sense! Like that’s gonna work! [eyeroll]
DeadMessenger
May 7th, 2015 @ 10:42 pm

Ok, it’s not her looks. She could find some flattering clothes and blend in.

It’s her vile and disgusting viewpoint that makes her an idiot, I’m sorry to say. Firstly, she’s bern listening to too many professors and not thinking for herself. Granted, she may be incapable of that at this point, given the mind comtrol she’s voluntarily subjected herself to. Logic, rational argument and morality would likely cause her more cognitive dissonance than her weak will could tolerate.

The truly unacceptable thing is where she professes a desire to politicize the “therapy” of some poor mentally ill person in order to jam the gay and feminist agenda down the throat of someone not in a position to protect themselves.

This girl needs intervention by a qualfied cult rescue counselor, stat!
RKae
May 8th, 2015 @ 12:37 am

…every double-entendre in an old Marx Brothers comedy becomes part of “rape culture…”

HONK! HONK!
Prime Director
May 8th, 2015 @ 1:20 am

some guys have deficient social skills, and are not good at “reading signals,” as we used to say, while other guys simply don’t know how to deal with rejection

Yeah, I got yer “bad at reading signals” right here. I’m pretty much mind-blind. I’ve learned that what you really need to be able to pick up on is where you fall on a standard 1-10 attractiveness scale.

If you’re less than a “five”, initiating any kind of interaction is, for all intents and purposes, illegal. The schizoid solution may be your best bet.

Not that its fool-proof. Depending on the context, ignoring women is also an actionable offense, referred to as ostracism.

If you’re damned either way, though, I recommend minimizing your efforts in general. Why work like hell for lousy results when you can attain them passively?
Robert What?
May 8th, 2015 @ 1:37 am

The takeaway message here seems to be that most women are too fragile and immature to be away at college.
LoneSage
May 8th, 2015 @ 3:29 am

Any attempt to advise females about avoiding sexual danger is condemned by feminists as “blaming the victim.”

Facepalm. Avoiding danger; any danger, is necessary every day. Advise on avoiding danger should be welcome by anyone. From keeping alive on one end to not waking up sore and sticky in the morning on the other. “You can’t fix stupid” and “batshit crazy” are walking hand in hand.
Dana
May 8th, 2015 @ 5:41 am

Coercive pressure can be defined as asking a second time after an initial rejection. That, of course, goes against another part of human nature, the part in which girls don’t want to seem too easy, and say no the first time, expecting that the guy will persist.

If it weren’t so distasteful — pun most definitely intended — I’d suggest that the safest thing for college men is the opposite of LUGs, that being queer until graduation. That can lead to a whole host of other problems, of course, but it might satisfy the feminazis.
The original Mr. X
May 8th, 2015 @ 6:04 am

Language departments, and courses where you need to study a foreign language, seem to be the most sensible parts of the humanities nowadays. Maybe the effort necessary to actually learn another language puts off the charlatans.
(Possible idea: make it so that all “x studies” classes require students to learn a foreign language, and see how long it takes for student numbers to collapse.)
Squid Hunt
May 8th, 2015 @ 8:30 am

I’ve yet to figure out why we’re so obsessed with sending our children off to college anyway.
RS
May 8th, 2015 @ 8:57 am

“I could not agree more,” says he who majored in, got two degrees in and taught a foreign language. Though, I would go further. I think competency in one foreign language should be compulsory in all undergraduate colleges within a university: business, engineering, agriculture and so forth.

In Europe, virtually all college students are competent in two foreign languages by the time they enter college and they’re required to take more courses there. My wife, a European, if fluent in three modern languages and Latin. In the US, foreign language is not viewed as a core subject but as “enrichment,” and high school courses in same are constantly in jeopardy of being cut. Yet we wonder why we cannot compete on a world stage.
Fail Burton
May 8th, 2015 @ 10:14 am

l just don’t get this. If the issue is solely one of impaired judgement and women are equal to men, why is this on the man? Couldn’t a man equally declare rape? Isn’t the fact they don’t show this is a man-hating ideology at work and also that there is no such thing as misogyny? If misogyny existed, why wouldn’t men have been the first to figure out such a scam?
Fail Burton
May 8th, 2015 @ 10:15 am

Unless it’s Pamela Geller.
Fail Burton
May 8th, 2015 @ 10:16 am

Men, don’t drink and stay away from drunken women. Problem solved.
Fail Burton
May 8th, 2015 @ 10:18 am

Drunken sex is worthless anyway. It’s like reading a book while drunk or painting while drunk.
Fail Burton
May 8th, 2015 @ 10:19 am

Please don’t let that robot vote. Thank you.
Kirby McCain
May 8th, 2015 @ 10:30 am

So we’ve arrived at a point in our societal evolution where women are no longer responsible for their own pussy. If anything happens to that pussy, someone else must bear the responsibility. Baby pops out, everyone else must chip in to raise it. Yes means, I may call you a rapist next year and parade around campus with a mattress on my back to demonstrate that point. Flip Wilson famously said, the devil made me do it. Now society is the devil. Except for Brittany Sonnier in which case the dog made her do it. Well, he was looking at her and stuff. The authorities agreed and reduced the charges. So she moved to Florida where she would be right at home with all the indigenous crazies and lo and behold a 15 year old she plied with drugs and alcohol made her do it again. SMH
Kirby McCain
May 8th, 2015 @ 10:34 am

Trigger warning?
Kirby McCain
May 8th, 2015 @ 10:36 am

Brilliant
Kirby McCain
May 8th, 2015 @ 10:49 am

Apparently the women are going to become teachers. Then traumatized by the campus rape culture they become 8th grade English teachers rape their students who were obviously looking at them and stuff. And we all know if a 13 year old says yes that’s definitely consent. Now if the 13 year old grows up and goes to college and is accused of sexual assault then says it was because his hot 8th grade English teacher raped him, we got us a real conundrum. If you see what I mean.
M. Thompson
May 8th, 2015 @ 10:51 am

Like this horse?

http://www.happytrails.org/_images/trigger/01-sm-Illustration%20Photo.jpg
Kirby McCain
May 8th, 2015 @ 10:55 am

As much as these schools cost I’d suggest dad pony up a VIP room allowance. You shouldn’t leave your son’s future to chance, put it in the hands of a pro.
Kirby McCain
May 8th, 2015 @ 10:56 am

Before or after stuffing?
Finrod Felagund
May 8th, 2015 @ 11:08 am

There is still at least one all-male college out there.
Quartermaster
May 8th, 2015 @ 11:40 am

Looks like a trigger warning to me.
Quartermaster
May 8th, 2015 @ 11:42 am

And, you’re still begging on bended knees?
robertstacymccain
May 8th, 2015 @ 11:58 am

Using the “P-word” in referring to female genitalia would probably be considered word-rape on campus nowadays. Your verbal violence against women is hate speech, and you will be reported to the Dean of Students because …

What? You’re not a college student? You mean the campus lynch mob has no power over you?

How dare you fail to submit to their authority? They are our moral and intellectual superiors, you know!
robertstacymccain
May 8th, 2015 @ 1:01 pm

I’ve learned that what you really need to be able to pick up on is where you fall on a standard 1-10 attractiveness scale.
If you’re less than a “five”, initiating any kind of interaction is, for all intents and purposes, illegal.

There is an important truth here, in that feminists — for all their complaints about “sexual objectification” and the “male gaze” — are often putty in the hands of any reasonably attractive man who has the necessary savoir faire to navigate through the phony “strong woman” pose that feminists typically strike. This is true even of many lesbian feminists, who sometimes will confidentially admit that they are not so utterly indifferent to male charm as some ideologues would have us believe.

All I ever needed to know about hypocrisy I learned from certain women I knew in college, whose words were so often contradicted by their actions that I came to the cynical conclusion that either (a) women lack self-awareness, or (b) women are habitually dishonest. You’d go to visit a girl at her dorm, and her roommates would be hovering around as if to “protect” her, when it was plainly apparent that this surveillance was motivated by raw envy. To alleviate the hostility, therefore, you’d turn on the charm toward the envious roommate in a friendly way, and she’d puff up with pride that you had paid her some attention. However, as soon as you left, you could be sure that the envious roommate would be badmouthing you to the girl you’d gone to see.

The Embittered Envious Roommate type invariably felt herself to be superior to other girls and thus self-authorized to pass judgment on who was dating who, etc. Gossipy, backstabbing, natural-born meddlers who — although they could demonstrate no actual basis for their authority to run other people’s lives — nevertheless took it on themselves to do so.

I recall these memories not only because the Embittered Envious Roommate type so exemplifies the modern feminist mentality, but also because of this: When you’d visit a girl’s dorm room back in the day (late 70s/early 80s), you’d sometimes see a “beefcake” poster on the wall, showing some shirtless pop star or actor or the Chippendales dancers. Guess whose poster that was? Bingo: This visual celebration of masculine studliness invariably belonged to the Embittered Envious Roommate who, unable to attract male attention in reality, consoled herself with fantasies of unattainable Dream Men. She was the perfect analog of Elliot Rodger, the antisocial geek whose frustrated desire for a blonde Dream Girl inspired the Isla Vista massacre.

Look: Guys have their bullshit and women have their bullshit, and all of us have to learn how to cope with each other’s bullshit as best we can. What bothers me so much about feminists is their tendency to exonerate women — exempt women for any responsibility for their own decisions — by heaping blame on men for the alleged oppression of The Patriarchy. Some girl goes strutting through the streets of New York City and gets catcalled by rude scum and — despite the fact that I don’t live anywhere near New York and never catcall women — somehow I’m to blame for these dudes’ behavior?

There is an old saying down home: Never try to bullshit a bullshitter.
Fail Burton
May 8th, 2015 @ 1:07 pm

It’s a gendered slur and considered proof of woman-hatred. I read that court paper. Even vulgar 14 yr olds weren’t that nuts back in the day. They live via TV and the internet and texting and then they wonder why their boring lives need random kooky experimentation to make themselves seem alive.
Fail Burton
May 8th, 2015 @ 1:10 pm

May she play a softball doubleheader.
Pamela Geller is a Provocative B*tch | Regular Right Guy
May 8th, 2015 @ 1:58 pm

[…] The War Against Human Nature: What Does ‘Unreasonable Pressure’ Mean? […]
Robert What?
May 8th, 2015 @ 2:27 pm

After putting a kid through a worthless four years at a state university (would that I knew then what I know now – thank goodness he has no debt), my advice for young men especially is to skip traditional college unless

1) He has a clear path of study with demonstrated future value and can swing it without incurring debt, or

2) He gets into one of the very top tier schools (Princeton, Harvard, Yale, etc) and, again, can swing it debt free; hopefully with a partial scholarship. Those schools won’t ‘learn ya anything more valuable, but you’ll be buying into their powerful crony network. You’ll just have to work on not transforming into a miserable human being as so many of them do.

Anything else is a tragic waste of valuable time and money. If you need an edumacation in a special field and you can’t get into one of the TT schools, better to get what you need at a quality community college and MOOCs.
Robert What?
May 8th, 2015 @ 2:32 pm

You must be the other other McCain 😉
theoldsargesays
May 8th, 2015 @ 3:47 pm

Seminary?
If these womyn and their progressive lackeys keep on with this nonsense then we might start seeing seminaries becoming a sort of trade school. At least a safe environment for males ( and I do mean real, born as, anatomically correct males) to get an education.
Finrod Felagund
May 8th, 2015 @ 3:53 pm

Nope: http://www.wabash.edu/
RS
May 8th, 2015 @ 5:51 pm

Certainly item 1 is good advice. It should further be at a state university with a demonstrably good return on investment.

Item 2 sounds good in theory, but in reality, those of us from the Middle Class in flyover country can never “buy” our way into the class of people who are Ivy League legacies. Attendance at Princeton is merely part of the package, perhaps the easiest part. It’s the rest of it–a family history which exudes “upper crust.”
Robert What?
May 8th, 2015 @ 6:47 pm

True – an extreme rarity. And let’s not forget another strike against traditional college for most young men: college has become a hostile place for men, except for the very few who know how to play the game. The young men are responsible for both their own behavior and girls’ behavior. Of course they have no authority over girls’ behavior: just responsibility.
Kirby McCain
May 8th, 2015 @ 7:33 pm

Every time he wants a sammich.
Kirby McCain
May 8th, 2015 @ 7:42 pm

It’s a vagina in the doctor’s office. I don’t go to Tattle Tales to see vagina and neither did Motlëy Crud.