To be honest, I've disagreed with many things that Greta Christina has written over the years, but I think this piece makes valid points in regard to certain questions that trouble modern day society.
However, I do take issue with one thing Christina does in this blog post. I'll take the statement that "No means no" as a given. I completely agree with that, and also agree that the dangerous games that are played by both men and women in which "no doesn't really mean no" can have abhorrent results. The simple fact is that the woman in the
original song never says "no"; she is vacillating, and says that she
should say "no." Christina's analysis depends on believing that the woman wants to say "no," and Christina basically assumes that the woman in the song
has said "no" even if not explicitly. As long as I ignore the actual lyrics and accept Christina's gloss of them, I can agree with the rest of what she says. Just to note: in the "Consensual Outside" version, the woman does explicitly say "no."
ETA: Reviewing the movie version, the woman does say "the answer is no." So my point is shot down.
Still, the song needn't be viewed as malignant. In its context within the old movie, I don't think that it was.
Back in the modern world, I think it's right to place so much importance on the inviolability of "No means no." Given the wide dispersal of that meme, most people are aware of it, and I think both men and women should take it to heart. An implied "no" should suffice as well, in my opinion. People in the real world aren't that honest, though. Ideally, the "flirtatious game" Christina describes around ignoring boundaries should end, but some enjoy playing with fire. So we're back to "No means no." Games should stop when that line is
explicitly drawn.
As for whether there is some over-reaction going on, I think there certainly there is. That doesn't invalidate the legitimacy of respecting boundaries. Taking that tack would be like the asshat MRA types who point to extremist statements made by some feminists and use them as a broad brush to justify their position that "feminism is bad, and should be opposed."
