Dispelling the Notion that Women and Men Can't be Friends

Women and men can't be friends. And, women and women can't be friends.  The different sexes can't intermix beyond their biological impulses, and women can't get passed the cattiness and the competition - they can't be real friends - not like men can. After all, its probably a man who will get in the way. This is rubbish, and an archaic view of female and male gender roles that inhibits the entire expression of self and possibility of friendly relations between the sexes. Indeed, patriarchal structures are alive and thriving in beliefs and statements such as these. It reduces women and men to animals, with no interest in anything more than playing out normalized and expected gender roles.

Presumed Consent is Killing Equality

IN Swaziland, teenage girls are taught about sexually transmitted diseases, condoms and HIV testing information handed out at will as they learn that sex is dangerous and mostly for men.  In India, The Justice Verma Committee’s recommendation on recognizing marital rape as an offence under criminal law was hastily swept aside by the Standing Committee on Home, on the basis that 'marriage presumes consent.' And a few weeks ago, in the HBO series Girls, Adam raped his girlfriend Natalia onscreen. Or did he? It was, according to Slate, at the very least, “uncomfortable.”  Or maybe it was a violation and “something she didn’t like?" 

All three of these situations highlight an unspoken topic in the fight against rape and sexual abuse: the presumed notion of consent.