Naomi Wolf vs. Jaclyn Friedman: Feminists Debate the Sexual Allegations Against Julian Assange(Note: You have to sit through 2 minutes of pledge drive before the 10 minute video begins...)
Shorter Naomi Wolf: It's not rape if you don't repeatedly say no, even if you're being threatened and held down.
Shorter Naomi Wolf: It's not rape if he starts putting his cock in you while you're asleep.*
It's much more apparent to me now why Friedman and Valenti named their book Yes Means Yes. If somebody like Wolf who has worked with survivors for so many years can get consent so wrong, I just don't know how we're going to shift cultural norms around rape. Perhaps if Wolf had spent less time during the interview expressing how offended she is, while providing a litany of experience, her "arguments" would be more clear to me...
*of course, if such a scenario is talked about ahead of time, and asked for with an enthusiastic "yes!", that's different.
4 comments:
Just FYI, the video I see here is Amy Goodman doing a Democracy Now fundraiser.
Hey Tadhg: Thanks for noting that--the actual video starts after the Democracy Now pledge drive message, which is a couple of minutes long. Irritating as fuck, but I'll put up with it for that particular show...
I heard this on the radio, and I really was shocked to hear Naomi Wolf defending Assange, not based on personal opinion about the truth of the allegations but rather assuming that its true and what happened to those two women isn't wrong. How can she call herself a feminist and still not agree that sex without 100% consent is rape?
I agree with other comments - I was shocked when I heard this. Wolf was essentially going along with the idea that a rape allegation can only be considered if it's very cut and dry, black and white type of situation. As if some type of "negotiation" (positive diction much?) at some point in the 24 hour span makes everything a-okay. Sigh. Just shocking.
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