Postmodern Left Protects Women by Releasing Rapists from Jail

I'm reminded of the 'Pride' march that was attacked by Antifa because it came too close to a Muslim neighbourhood, but no one ever said the Left was intelligent.

From The European Conservative

By Itxu Díaz

The Spanish case is a perfect example of how the identitarian Left works in the real world: its feminism does not defend women, but attacks them in order to sell an electoral slogan.

At the time of writing these lines, more than 350 rapists, sex offenders, and pedophiles have been released from Spanish prisons before serving their sentences, or have seen their sentences drastically reduced, after the socialist government passed a new law in October under the pretext of ‘protecting’ women. The controversial law is called the “solo sí es sí” (only yes is yes) law, in reference to the condition of obtaining explicit consent from a woman before having sex. In addition to being a compendium of nonsense against men, it redefines the concepts of rape and abuse, and thus also the penalties associated with those crimes, prompting thousands of prisoners for sexual assault to ask for a review of their convictions, leading to the instant release of hundreds of them.

This law defines ‘sexual assault’ as any act “that infringes on the sexual freedom of another person without their consent,” entirely leaving out the term ‘sexual abuse’ and thus, in practice, eliding the nuances that distinguish rape, abuse, harassment, and other forms of sex crimes that once merited distinct penalties. In particular, the term of sentences for sex crimes have been reduced, such that whereas rapists previously spent between 6 and 12 years in prison, they will now spend between 4 to 12 years. Consequently, many offenders, including some with particularly heinous crimes to their names and many repeat offenders, are being released from prison. 

Is there anyone in the world capable of maintaining that a law which releases hundreds of rapists can be good for women? Yes, of course: only the postmodern Left can maintain such a contradiction. Perhaps we should remind progressives what G.K. Chesterton wrote: “Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to fit the vision, instead we are always changing the vision.”

Another controversial aspect of the new Spanish law is that, from now on, only those sexual acts that occur after the explicit and verbalized consent of the woman will be understood as non-criminal sexual acts. In practice, it is impossible to prove this consent, and under Spanish law men have lost the presumption of innocence. Fortunately, we have not lost our sense of humor: official forms are circulating on social media networks with a lot of boxes for women to tick and sign their consent in order to be able to engage in any kind of flirtation with a man, including receiving a compliment, which is something that the government has also made a crime. All those “expressions, behaviors or propositions of a sexual nature that create an objectively humiliating, hostile or intimidating situation for the victim” will be punishable. 

The Spanish case is a perfect example of how the identitarian Left works in the real world: its feminism does not defend women, but attacks them in order to sell an electoral slogan. They convince the public that they have passed a ‘feminist law’ by releasing from prison none other than the worst aggressors of women. Then they attach the label ‘extreme Right’ to any of us who denounce the obvious: that the law is putting women and girls at greater risk of being raped. And, of course, the issue of explicit consent does not benefit young girls. I have had the chance to talk about the issue with some teenagers, and I still haven’t finished thanking God for not being one of them, and for having been 15 years old in the ’90s and not now.

Broadly speaking, young Spaniards have accepted the new law in the following way: many of them simply do not want to get into trouble with girls, preferring to play with their cell phones, engage in sports betting, drink among themselves, or indulge in pornography as a substitute for any affective or sexual contact with the opposite sex. I can’t think of a more drab adolescence.

Meanwhile, who still dare to flirt and look for a partner are careful to keep screenshots of all the messages that they exchange with women, just in case, after a unilateral breakup, the threat of being reported appears. 

It’s incredibly sick and toxic. Men don’t want to mess with the law, and thanks to the Left, women are now synonymous with trouble. Of course, not only in courtship but in long term commitment and parenthood, Spanish justice will always side with the woman in case something goes wrong and there is a dispute over child custody. But whatever the objective of these laws, the big losers are the women first, and the marriage and family second. 

At the end of the day, the socialists in Spain are succeeding in making good what H.L. Mencken, always scathing and brilliant—for better or worse—wrote: “A bachelor is one who wants a wife, but is glad he hasn’t got her.” The good news is that we conservatives have been left with a magnificent field to cultivate: the heart of man.