No means no and bed does not equal sex

By Matt Lawrence

Published 16:26 15/02/10

• 

I just can’t let this lie.

I was merrily whizzing up the M23 on Monday morning listening to Primal Scream circa 1994 – that makes me sound like I was speeding, I can promise all law enforcement officers out there that I was going 69.5 mph – and I decided to turn over to 909 Mw for the news.

I was not only confronted by more deaths in Afghanistan (sadly par for the course these days and almost passes unnoticed), but also by a survey that suggested women ask to get raped!

Not physically asking the question, obviously, but according to this survey, a large percentage of people believed that through their actions women “asked” to get raped. Pardon?!

I apologise profusely that I can’t quote the exact figures to you. I tried my best to write them down, but steering with my knees whilst scrabbling about in the glove box for a pen, proved a task too far.

I just can’t get over this.

And you should have heard the reasoning behind people’s thought processes.

A large percentage of people were of the opinion that if a woman gets into bed with a man she should be aware of the consequences. What? Please show me the people who came to this highly intellectual decision.

Maybe I’m a little long in the tooth, but I didn’t realise bed = sex.

Maybe I’m in the minority, but as far as I’m concerned bed = sleep, until jumped on by rug rats!

I went on a stag do in my summer break and somehow ended up slightly worse for wear in the same bed as my mate. I woke up in the morning with a smile on my face.

I assumed I was just happy, but maybe my pal had taken heed of this supposed unwritten rule whereby bed = sex, whether consensual or not!!

And this wasn’t the only theory that totally blew my mind.

I know it’s an age-old adage, but I struggle to believe that just because a woman dresses provocatively it somehow makes her “fair game.”

I wish I could remember the damn figures, but far too large a proportion of our society in this survey held the female partially accountable for her rape.

This got me thinking.

I spent four years in the United States and as everyone knows Halloween is a big deal over there.

Every year, without fail, with a little kick from a can or two of Bud Light – I must have been a poverty stricken student, it’s the only plausible excuse for drinking that sewage water – I dressed as a female character.

One year I was a particularly provocative Snow White.

I wasn’t aware that the American Football team, dressed as the Seven Dwarfs, would be able to take my costume as the green light and relieve me of my innocence!

Can people please wake up and smell the coffee. There are no excuses.

Unless somebody verbally asks for sex, they are not asking for sex, however they are dressed, or whichever bed they decide to sleep in.

I swear the 21st Century is around here somewhere...

Fancy winning £3,000 for FREE this month? Play Mirror Football Streak for your chance to win cash prizes! Start predicting now!