social progress

Last week, I saw somebody wearing a yellow t-shirt with the text "every kiss begins with consent." I saw it in passing, and didn't have time to parse the graphic, but there was one. Cambridge usually has a pretty high density of idealistic t-shirts (from "world peace" to "you can't tell me what to do"), but this seemed new. I like it.

After the young woman wearing it got off the bus, I thought it was an impressive bit of social progress for her to wear it. Some women my age have daughters within a few years of 20. I recall being close to that age and knowing women who organized Take Back The Night rallies and were very emphatic about no meaning no...but I don't think any of us would have worn a shirt like that in public. It would have been a joke.

Then I thought it would indicate even more social progress if I'd seen the t-shirt on a young man, alongside the emblem of a fraternity or sponsor suggesting lots of guys were wearing them. Probably not. Fraternities have such a horrible reputation for advocating rape culture that I'd suspect some kind of nasty joke ("every kiss begins with consent" on the front, and something like "don't stop 'til I get enough," on the back.) Or even simple hypocrisy, the way such organizations officially oppose alcohol abuse.

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