Kate Harding Quote

Similarly, he forgot - or never really understood - that we live in a culture where men, as a group, have more power than women.This isn't a controversial statement, despite the protestations of guys who funnel their frustration that not all extremely young, conventionally attractive women want to sleep with them into and argument that women, as a group, have all the power. (Bill Maher, repping for his fan base, famously jokes that men have to do all sorts of shit to get laid, but women only have to do their hair.)The really great thing about this argument is how the patently nonsensical premise - that some young women's ability to manipulate certain men equals a greater degree of gendered power than say, owning the presidency for 220-odd years - obscures the most chilling part: in this mindset, all the power means, simply, the power to withhold consent. Let that sink in for a minute. If one believes women are more powerful that men because we own practically all of the vaginas, then women's power to withhold consent to sex is the greatest power there is. Which means the guy who can take away a woman's right to consent is basically a superhero. Right?

Kate Harding

Similarly, he forgot - or never really understood - that we live in a culture where men, as a group, have more power than women.This isn't a controversial statement, despite the protestations of guys who funnel their frustration that not all extremely young, conventionally attractive women want to sleep with them into and argument that women, as a group, have all the power. (Bill Maher, repping for his fan base, famously jokes that men have to do all sorts of shit to get laid, but women only have to do their hair.)The really great thing about this argument is how the patently nonsensical premise - that some young women's ability to manipulate certain men equals a greater degree of gendered power than say, owning the presidency for 220-odd years - obscures the most chilling part: in this mindset, all the power means, simply, the power to withhold consent. Let that sink in for a minute. If one believes women are more powerful that men because we own practically all of the vaginas, then women's power to withhold consent to sex is the greatest power there is. Which means the guy who can take away a woman's right to consent is basically a superhero. Right?

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About Kate Harding

Kate Harding (born c. 1975) is an American feminist and fat-acceptance writer. She was founding editor of the Shapely Prose blog, author of Asking For It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture—and What We Can Do About It, co-author of Lessons From the Fat-o-Sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with Your Body, and co-editor of anthology Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America.