The Cornell Seven case has colored my last few weeks with shock, disappointment, and above all, anger, taking over my social feed and my friends’ groups. Looking over the transcripts and news reports about how Jane Doe felt coerced, about how she claimed to have pushed them away and said no, I got angry too. Yes, these are just allegations and unproven thus far, what continues to bother me is how conversations around consent are getting twisted.
The people who seemed to excuse or minimize the situation got to me. Those who said, ‘Oh, but when she said no, they stopped.’ I got angry at the people who were saying things like, ‘Well, she went there in the middle of the night, drunk. She asked for it.’ Somewhere along the way, however, I began to wonder why they were saying these things. Isn’t the concept of consent clear?
