A Queer Commentary on Consent *Trigger Warning*
As a queer man, I want to speak for myself and engage other queer persons, especially queer men with two points of thought on consent. First, consider the violence we do to our female friends’ bodies. Consider how we shame them, commodify them, and degrade them. I’m not judging you for a casual “Hey B*tch” or “Gurl” here or there. I’m talking about touching them, groping them, without consent. Ladies with queer identified friends, how often have we (myself included) allowed ourselves to grab, prod, play with your bodies as if they are our playthings. These women are our friends and sisters and mothers and girlfriends and sometimes lovers.
Photo Credit: Phyllis Graber Jensen.
"What I want is for us to stop pretending. I want us to stop pretending that racism is over. If it were, tipsy strangers wouldn’t have heckled me. I want us to stop pretending that it’s not harder to be female than male, that it’s not harder to be gay than straight. I want us to stop pretending that we live in an equal society. We don’t. It isn’t one person or one group’s fault. Instead of blaming or evading, we can encourage and confront, together. Instead of pretending that all these ‘isms’ are over, we can say ‘Things are better than they’ve ever been, and there’s so much more to be done.’"
Stop Pretending Racism Is Over from The Boston Globe
(Source: inthecac)
