I'm seeing a lot lately about "cancel culture." A lot of people seem to think that discarding old ways in favor of embracing new values is a bad thing, but is that really the case. To be begin with, nothing about "cancel culture" is being codified into law. I mean, if someone wants to watch old episodes of Pepe le Pew, nothing is stopping that. Warner Bros. simply decided that his character does not represent their values anymore.
Where the disconnect comes in is...this country has been normalizing aggressive sexual behavior and lack of consent for decades, maybe even centuries. Women had to fight long and hard to acquire the right to vote in this country because it was widely believed that her husband would cast a vote "for the household." So her consent was not even there...he voted, she didn't, period.
The trespasses on consent are numerous, but the most egregious is spousal rape. It was only as recently as 1993 that forcing sex onto a spouse became a crime in all 50 of the United States. Think about that for just a minute. As recently as 26 years ago, people in this country thought that it was perfectly okay for a husband to rape his wife. Now, combine that with the the fact that 26 states still allow children 16 and younger to get married without parental approval, it paints a pretty dim picture of our culture's attitude towards consent.
Look at college campuses. Rape came to be seen as a normal part of the "college experience." College officials began running "internal investigations" of their star athletes that would absolve them of rape or sexual misconduct allegations because those athletes brought large amounts of revenue to the colleges. Evidence of rape was buried with a "boys will be boys" attitude. The girls, however, not only were violated without consent, they were ostracized by others, and treated like a villain for "disrupting the norm."
The way our culture has taught people to disregard consent has led to rape culture. Bully culture. Depression culture. Anxiety culture. It seems to me that "cancel culture" is an attempt to undo some of the mistakes of our past. If we can start to teach our kids now that our bodies are our own...and everybody else's bodies are their own...AND we need to ask permission before we invade someone else's space. More importantly, we need to wait for that person to say YES, maybe this world will be a better place when they get to be adults.
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