While a student at American University, I was required to take an online sex education course that focused on consent. I was taught that women can change their mind about consent the day after an encounter, effectively leaving women with the ability to rewrite history and accuse sexual partners of inappropriate behavior despite receiving consent.
Feminists think misandry isn’t real, but campus culture shows otherwise. Modern day “feminism” is pervading on college campuses and is perpetuating an irrational fear of hookup culture, all while vilifying men. What I was taught by my college’s online sex ed course provides a foreshadowing of a sad reality: misandry in the 21st century. This misandry will surely trickle into other aspects of life, like workplace culture and our daily interactions with each other.
I never thought I would be sex-shamed, for not having it, but then I was required by my university to take the “Campus Clarity: Think about it ” program. It asks questions that probe into students’ sexual pasts and poses a myriad of hypothetical situations where, apparently, there is only one right way to handle it. The program opened my eyes to a whole new world — a world of rescinding your previously given consent and how to take legal action against men.
Taxpayer-funded public universities now use Campus Clarity as the gold standard for sexual-assault prevention and as an influence for positive decision-making on campus. The program’s anti-men undertones only further confirm the fears of men around the nation when it comes to false sexual assault charges. An inherent bias towards men in the arena of sexual assault is now being taught on campus. Eventually the workplace will follow suit.
[Related: College sex ed training calls students ‘NOOBS’ for failing module]
The problem is much bigger than the invasiveness of the questioning or the peering into the sex lives of students that Campus Clarity facilitates. The problem is that, from a young age, it is ingrained into girls’ minds that men have the natural ability to coerce them and they should always feel victimized. I was taught this through Campus Clarity’s hypotheticals, which showed that even in the case where both the man and woman were too drunk to consent, it was the man was the aggressor and the woman was the victim.
This type of teaching, let alone belief, sets the precedent for men to be wrongly accused in the academic system, the workplace, and, ultimately, in the justice system. The notion that a man is inherently in the wrong, by virtue of the fact he is a man, is a huge problem with modern day feminism and today’s culture.
Culture is a social script that we learn over time. It informally educates us about values, beliefs, and behaviors that are broadly seen as “normal” or “common sense.” The culture on campus will directly affect future generations of women, and men, in all aspects.
Teaching women from a young age that it is “normal” or “common sense” to rescind consent will rock the way in which we interact with each other in all mediums.
I am not victim-blaming a woman based on what she wore or how much she drank. I am telling young women to take responsibility for their actions instead of using consent as a tool to change the past. As a woman, I have always felt empowered to make my own choices, but I have also always taken responsibility for my actions.
Programs like Campus Clarity have made me into a men’s rights activist, but I’m not really advocating for men’s rights — I’m simply advocating for fair treatment.
