In Spain, the new law stipulates that consent to sex must be explicit and not merely presumed. Silence and passivity do not mean consent.
A new law passed a week ago by the Spanish Parliament, with 205 votes in favor and 141 against and three abstentions, shows that there is a problem in society. This particular law is about the required explicit consent to sex and this is succinctly captured in the slogan “only yes means yes”.
The reason for this law was the gang rape of a teenage girl which the perpetrators did not admit and claimed that it was a consensual act. Thus, the new passed law provides that the consent should be explicit and not just presumed. Silence and passivity do not mean consent. This is the fact that as bona fide commentators we should comment.
We assume that the Spanish legislator will have foreseen how this will is expressed and especially how it is recorded. That is, how does the romantic partner ensure that after 20-30 years, his sexual partner will not claim that he sexually harassed or raped her. Because in recent years we have witnessed such incidents.
We know that when there is mutual romantic attraction, the relationship ends naturally and harmoniously. But now, based on the new Spanish law, so that the romantic partner does not run and does not arrive and finds himself entangled in the future, near or far, he must stop the sexual game shortly before the sexual act and take a mobile phone out of his pocket telephone or a written statement of the law and asking his partner if she consents to the following sexual act or something similar.
She will then have to state her conviction in a stentorian voice to record or sign the pre-printed statement of law. Then, love partner and when he goes home he should file the statement because he might need it in the future. In other words, today’s twenty-something in his 70s should have a USB stick or folder full of similar consent statements from his romantic partners. Are we in a good psychological state as a society?
