“In a speakout on sexual violence at Yale University, the most common theme was a new crime that has been largely ignored: when a woman stipulates a safe, or nonpenetrative, sexual encounter, but the man ejaculates into her against her will. AIDS education will not get very far until young men are taught how not to rape young women and how to eroticize trust and consent; and until young women are supported in the way they need to be redefining their desires.”
–Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth, 1991
studentactivism.net 
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January 11, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Lara Emily Foley
Wow how quickly time and the existence of Julian Assange as a public figure changes everything for Naomi Wolf.
January 11, 2011 at 3:05 pm
Angus Johnston
Quite striking, isn’t it? Not just the content, but the whole tone of the thing.
January 11, 2011 at 6:32 pm
Katrina
Ha! I see what you did there. :)
January 12, 2011 at 1:23 pm
jesse jane
This is (of course) ENTIRELY consistent with what Naomi Wolf said on Democracy Now.
January 12, 2011 at 1:54 pm
Angus Johnston
At a bare minimum, Jane, choosing the most charitable reading possible, the tone of this passage is completely inconsistent with Wolf’s statements on Democracy Now.
Here Wolf insists that sexual aggression is not just a criminal crime but a moral one — that men need to be taught to “eroticize trust and consent” rather than approaching the one as irrelevant and the other as an annoying hurdle. On DN she treated (what she questionably characterized as) retroactive, grudging consent as a model for healthy sexuality.
I’ve got another post coming up that touches on this, but I think it’s really important to note that the very Daily Mail story that Wolf used to spin this case as one that was about consensual sex included a quote from one of the complainants alleging that Assange “has a twisted attitude to women and a problem taking no for an answer.”
Wolf has never, to my knowledge, so much as acknowledged the existence of this quote, which flies in the face of so much of what she has asserted about this case — and which, if taken as truthful, would certainly establish Assange as failing to meet her 1991 ethical standard.
January 12, 2011 at 3:11 pm
jesse jane
No, it’s not. And that you don’t see that is why this is an argument.
You are being a tool right now. I mean that in the most charitable way possible. Stop being a tool.
Wolf was 100% dead on that 1) the women did NOT file rape charges, 2) did NOT claim force or coercion, 3) are participating in an OBVIOUS CIA EFFORT to smear Assange, which has dragged him through the mud, made rape charges seem to everyone outside the echo chamber like a joke, and 4) women are moral adults who might be advised to take responsibility for their own choices.
Why does Wolf have to “acknowledge the existence” of her own quotes? Wolf continues to say that sex should be consensual and erotic. The inconsistency is in your own argument, not in her position.
January 12, 2011 at 3:14 pm
jesse jane
I can easily see how Assange, a computer geek turned celebrity from that bastion of gender enlightenment known as Australia, had a “twisted attitude towards women.” I’d be shocked if he didn’t.
Again, so what?
Meanwhile, Obama is running a torture camp in Gitmo and threatening to kill Assange, while Bradley Manning sits in solitary confinement. That’s not rape, but it’s a hell of a lot more abusive than ANYTHING you could possibly read into the accusations against Assange. But whatever, right?
January 12, 2011 at 3:17 pm
jesse jane
by the way: I truly encourage you and whatever student organizations you are with to make explicit your beliefs on this matter. Watch 99% of the student body ignore you. Because thank god the students I know today have about zero patience for this nonsense. The same PC self-satisfaction, finger-pointing methods, argument by insinuation, identity politics and assorted moralistic (conservative and reactionary) tripe that doomed the student movement for decades…
January 12, 2011 at 3:24 pm
Angus Johnston
Jesse, that’s eleven comments in a little over an hour, and you continue to spout false information after I’ve provided you with quotes proving it false.
Step away from the keyboard. Take a walk around the block.
January 12, 2011 at 3:25 pm
Angus Johnston
And by the way, the quote that Wolf hasn’t acknowledged is the quote in which one of Assange’s accusers said he wouldn’t take no for an answer, a quote that directly contradicts her characterization of the case.