Twitter discourse about consent shouldn't still exist in 2021 — The Lamron - Lamron

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Twitter user @Shyyloo isn’t the only person to ever voice this opinion, but they made sure to be loud when they did it, so we can address their befuddlement directly.

“Women be like don’t objectify my body unless I want you to,” @Shyyloo tweeted. 

Correct. Yes. And thankfully, despite 903 people liking this tweet for what are probably the wrong reasons, Twitter user @jodieegrace went viral for her reply.

“Look who just discovered consent,” @jodieegrace tweeted. She earned well over 34k likes for this tweet. Good. At least a solid chunk of Twitter users agreed with the educated take on this issue.

 But other people, like @simplesombra on Twitter, still clearly don’t understand the issue.

“Guys I don’t think it’s about them not understanding consent, I think it’s about them pointing out one of the many contradictions in the female brain,” @Simplesombra tweeted. 

Listen, no hate to these Twitter users in particular, but for anyone reading these tweets and not understanding why they’re bad … you need to understand. You just do. 

So, after breaking down the overwhelming misogyny in this sentence, we can analyze why consent isn’t a contradiction. 

First, the misogyny. The phrase “the female brain,” for starters. Use of “female” when describing a woman offers the connotation of analyzing women as if they are animals or another species. The use of the phrase “the female brain” diminishes the humanity of women further by verbally dissecting them into their body parts as you might dissect a frog in bio class.

Part two of the misogyny in this sentence comes in with the statement that there are “many contradictions” in women’s brains. If there are many contradictions in women’s brains, there are also many contradictions in men’s brains, and all humans’ brains for that matter. Humans as a species are generally capable of rational thought, and there’s no reason to separate women from other humans in regard to how we think. 

But here’s the kicker: beyond the fact that this tweet doesn’t elaborate on whatever other contradictions might be in women’s brains, it states that the concept of wanting to give consent is a contradiction, thereby implying that consent doesn’t make sense.

Here, it might be useful to check out the specific definition of objectification. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines objectification as the process of treating something as if it were an object, and here we can fill in the gap between the lines where it says rather than treating someone as a human being.

If you’re walking down the street and someone comes up behind you and feels they have the right to smack your ass as if you’re an object they’re entitled to touch, you have been objectified. 

Here’s why: this person is not respecting you as a human. They are not looking at you and seeing an individual capable of emotion and rational thought. They see you as something to use for their own pleasure—hence the smacking.

Now, let’s say you’re feeling spicy, and you want your significant other to smack your ass, so you tell them this. You have just given your significant other your consent. At any given point, you can take this consent back and tell your partner to stop. 

Here’s how it’s different: you choose when, where, why and how you would like to be treated. You are granted the authority of a human being and you are afforded the opportunity to dictate how you would like to be treated. You decide you would like to be made to feel like an object? Communicate this feeling and there you go: you have autonomy and authority and consent. 

Even though you’re being made to feel like an object, you’re still seen as a human being because you are one. You are in control and you are looked at with respect rather than being forced into the role of an object by someone else projecting their desires on you.

It’s not a contradiction. It’s not limited to “the female brain,” either. Anyone should be able to decide when, where, why and how they would like to be treated. If anyone of any gender is made to feel like an object against their will or is perceived as an object against their will, they are obviously going to object. 

We deserve the right to dictate how we would like to be perceived and treated. And that’s consent. Thanks, @jodieegrace. Any questions?

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Twitter discourse about consent shouldn't still exist in 2021 — The Lamron - Lamron
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