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Part of what I am saying is that clear "bright line" consent itself is kind of a mythical unicorn we chase.

People who grow up with Catholic guilt or who were sexually abused as a child (etc ad nauseum) may, themselves, feel conflicted about having sex at all, even with their spouse. (I speak from firsthand experience as someone who was sexually abused as a child.)

Sexual consent is just not the nice, simple thing that some people want it to be. There are people who can't get laid without getting liquored up. There are people who have rape fantasies because they want sex, but don't want to be "at fault" for doing something that they have internalized is inherently bad and verboten.

This element is mostly not discussed. The subject of rape comes up, and people don't want to talk about how personal baggage intersects with sexual morality and seriously muddies the waters on exactly what constitutes a consenting moral sexual encounter. If you need to have a drink to get laid at all, telling people you need to be sober amounts to telling them you can't get laid until you work out your personal demons. (Which is not what I am saying, but it may be what people "hear" when I say certain things.) This is incredibly problematic.



I was too, and I've done decades of work on it — using more and stranger modalities than you'd believe. I understand the subtleties. That's a very large part of why I'm so ardent about the issue — because most people haven't, and don't, and swing mile-wide (and often self-serving) generalities around something where the subtleties are measured in microns.

I'm also not talking about "bright line consent". I'm talking about drawing a flashing-neon line on the near side of using intoxication to excuse shitty behavior. It never excuses anything. E.g., you get behind the wheel, over the limit, that is 100% on you, no matter what.


We are on the same page. I don't think intoxication is an excuse.

I advocate that women should not put themselves in certain situations and I get accused of victim blaming for trying to empower women to live safely.

But I did years of therapy. I generally don't drink. Women who do drink and/or have not sorted their childhood baggage get pretty enraged when I suggest not putting themselves in certain situations.




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