For the past thirty to forty years the discourse on sexual assault in academia has been dominated by a due-process-be-damned fringe of Feminism which holds men and women to unequal standards regarding consent. One person among them is gender studies professor Jonathan Allan, who among other things makes a career out of teaches courses on (and writes books about teaching) books like Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey.

In my last post about Everfi’s mandatory sexual assault orientation program (now required for hundreds of thousands of students), I talked about alcohol and consent, and argued that the standard should be equal for both sexes. Here’s the relevant part of the post in context:

If someone is so incapacitated (not “impaired”) to the point that (s)he cannot consent to someone pressuring them to have sex (“wasted”), then yes, that is rape. But does being drunk while having sex in and of itself constitute rape? Not any more than being drunk means you aren’t a criminal for getting drunk and beating your kids, or going out and raping someone. In other words, no.

It’s really quite simple, and a matter of equal treatment: if simply being drunk means a female student cannot consent or be held responsible for what she does, then the same rule applies to male students as well – unless you’re a sexist (read: Feminist), of course.

I thought the above statement was rather balanced. Notice that the first paragraph was framed in a gender-neutral fashion, and adopted the same standard regarding consent for both sexes. It acknowledged that one can be intoxicated to the point of nonconsent, while still asserting that intoxication is not in itself the presence of nonconsent. It was almost…oh, what is that non-feminist word…nuanced.

And you know, I actually debated with myself whether I would include the snarky “unless you’re a sexist (read: Feminist)” comment. Now I know I made the right decision. Feminist and gender studies professor Jonathan Allan says on his Twitter page “Voice for Male Students asks: “does being drunk in and of itself constitute rape?” The answer: “In other words, no.”

Oh no, that doesn’t seem doctored or taken out of context at all, Dr. Allan. It almost seems as though you had cut out something between the phrase “the answer” and “in other words.” What were those other words, Dr. Allan? Don’t be shy now :).

After sharing the evil nasty half-quote tweet with a friend (whose only response was “Wow, I found that really offensive”), Allan continues by saying “Unbelievable. Right? That is what I’m researching. Most of the time I want to cry.” Notice the lack of any kind of counterargument. Where is the counterargument? In fact, I remember John Hembling at A Voice for Men writing a piece with a subtitle asking that exact question. In that article he says:

Whenever I or any other MRA fields an argument in defense of mens rights, or critical of feminism, it is never met with a counter argument. The arguments of MRAs are met with accusations, shaming language, insults, threats, blackmail, violence, censure, censorship, cooked up criminal charges, vandalism, imprisonment and other calumny.

So I ask again: where is the counterargument? The answer: there isn’t one. Feminism is a dogmatic and totalitarian ideology premised upon female supremacy. As such, it is highly intolerant toward dissent. You can see this in Dr. Allan’s response when I directly asked him for a counterargument. This was all he could say – not to me, but broadcast generally (the “view conversation” part is between me and SonomaLass, which you may view later in this post):

Hegemonic masculinity! An interesting concept. Oh hey – totally irrelevant to the conversation – here’s a picture of me:

That’s me playing the flute while dressed up as a character from the musical Phantom of the Opera (incidentally, I was also playing music from the musical, which is my second favorite only to Les Miserables, which I also referenced at the very beginning of the very post Allan is attacking). Not exactly the embodiment of “hegemonic masculinity,” is it?

Dear me, Dr. Allan, it almost seems as though you don’t know what you’re talking about. I do hope you do better research when you teach Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey.

On a side note, here are some of Dr. Allan’s other papers and presentations:

• Reading from Behind: Anal Eroticism in Delmira Agustini’s El Intruso
• Isn’t that enough? On Love in the Twilight Saga
• Purely Monstrous, Monstrously Virginal: Considering Purity, Abstinence, and Male Virginity in the Twilight Saga
• Anal Mythologies
• Reading from Behind: Fisting-as-écriture, anal eroticism, and Delmira Agustini’s El Intruso.

How much is a Ph.D. worth, again? They say college is the new high school. If so, why does it seem like graduate school is the new middle school? Does it go backwards like that – where, after graduating high school, any new education doesn’t progress you, it actually regresses you? For example, if I earn a Ph.D., will I then be qualified to teach elementary school?

Sometimes I wonder :)

It seems SonomaLass, Dr. Allan’s friend, was willing to engage with me, however briefly:

I have yet to receive a response, and she has posted many other tweets since.

Dr. Allan is apparently doing research into men’s human rights – something he has a hard time agreeing with in principle:

Horror of horrors! The very concept that men could be ill-treated by society as men. You know, Dr. Allan, in a pluralistic society you aren’t always going to hear opinions you agree with. But if we are all tolerant of diversity, I’m sure things will work out just fine.

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For a more in-depth look at the litigation movement for due process and equal access to education: