I’M GLAD I WENT TO COLLEGE WHEN I DID: We had a lot more fun. Heather Wilhelm explains “The Sexual Train Wreck Behind ‘Yes Means Yes'”:

On Tuesday, in that spirit, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a sweeping “yes means yes” bill into law, expanding the state’s sexual consent rules to include private colleges and universities. Both Nancy Pelosi and Lady Gaga love the concept—Ms. Gaga even co-authored a “yes means yes” op-ed with Cuomo—so you probably already know that it, just like passing bills you haven’t read and wearing dresses made entirely out of raw meat, is a really good idea.

“The so-called ‘yes means yes’ standard,” Reuters reports, “defines sexual consent between people as an affirmative, conscious, and voluntary understanding to engage in sexual activity.” Anything that falls outside of the nebulous concept of “consent”—a gratuitous touch on the elbow, perhaps, as opposed to the formally agreed-upon nudge of the right lower kneecap—could be labeled sexual assault. . . .

“Yes means yes” policies, at their heart, imply that it is normal, healthy, and a good idea to have sex with complete strangers. (Controversial point from yours truly: Unless you are a fictional member of a fictional band, it is generally not.) But they also imply that it is normal and healthy to have sex with people you don’t trust. Why else would you have to draw up a sex contract? Why else would you need Andrew Cuomo to write your sexual rules for you? Despite years of “feminist” marketing, that’s not empowered in any way. It’s just creepy, and also kind of insane.

The ideology behind “yes means yes” is strange in another way: It implies, through its list of rules, prescriptions, and penalties, that sex is a clinical experience; that it is perfunctory, mechanical, and best overseen by bureaucrats.

This liberal/progressive vision of sex is simply bizarre. It reveals a male-female (or male-male, or female-female, or transgender-male, or whatever– you get the drift) relationship that is barren of feelings, of intimacy, or even basic friendship. It is a mirror into the liberal/progressive mindset that trusts no one and sees trauma, offense, and microaggressions lurking around every corner.

Indeed, it makes one wonder if those who are ardently pushing these “yes means yes” bills weren’t, themselves, the victim of childhood sexual abuse, since they seem so traumatized by sex, and present a means of “fixing” a problem that, frankly, most people don’t find problematic at all. Do these individuals just need therapy, to work out their hostility? If not, why are they trying to transform one of life’s simplest pleasures into something so clinical? It is truly bizarre, and appears to reflect the adage, “The inmates are running the asylum.”