Badassery Magazine January 2018 Issue 20 | Page 14
Consent is a precious and price-
less gift, one offered as a symbol
of earned trust. Abuse it at your
peril.
(I admit my view of this issue is
a simplistic one, but then, what
exactly was so complicated about
issue in the first place?) ily from politicians) of "it's a
complex issue" is simply a code-
phrase for: "it's a messy social
issue that will probably cost me
votes so I'd rather not get in-
volved." Political ambition and
courage are not common bed-
fellows in these modern times it
would seem.
Now at this point some bright
spark will bring up the so-called
"men's rights" groups that have
been (quite loudly) making their
views known. It would be easy
to tar and feather these groups
as ridiculous misogynistic radi-
cals with an ax to grind against
feminists. However, it would be
unfair to paint all the people who
join these groups as crackpots,
as it would be wrong to paint the
members of ANY group with the
same brush. There have been discussions
- not just shouting from angry
men's rights groups - about sexu-
al assault toward men. This is of
course true. While the majority
of cases hitting the headlines
have been those of men mistreat-
ing women, such forms of assault
upon another are in no way
limited to that scenario. Assault
can happen in any combination
of genders - male, female, trans,
gay, lesbian, bisexual, gender
fluid, etc.
That said, these men's groups
don't make it easy.
The cry we often hear (primar- It could be said that one of the
few truly inclusive activities in
our society appears to be the as-
sault and mistreatment of others.
If that simple statement does
not make you heartsick, may
I respectfully suggest that you
reconsider you priorities?
Dear reader, you'll have to for-
give me for being so laconic and
even brusque about this, but the
fact is, we're nearly 18 years into
the 21st century and we're STILL
arguing over issues that should
have been resolved in the 19th
century.
Within so-called "complex"
issues like these, one can often
find simple truths. In this case,
there is one that seems to stand
out: Issues like these are only as
"complex" as we decide they are.
The time has come for us to de-
cide... differently.
About the Author
Mackenzie Clench is a writer, creative instigator, author, agent
provocateur and part-time Lord of the Dance. He's also the CEO,
Scribbler and Fuss Maker in Chief of Mackenzie Clench Creative,
helping entrepreneur-shaped humans refine their messaging to
draw a through-line from the heart of their business to the heart
of the clients.
Mackenzie regularly kicks over the apple cart of "that's-the-way-
it's-always-been-done" and gives the copywriting cognoscente an-
eurysms on a nearly daily basis. He believes that 1 + 1 = 3, women
are the future and that the coolest dinosaur is the thesaurus. He's
currently on a mission to show that every single human-shaped
human on this big blue marble is a walking, talking, latte-sipping
engine of creation. His desire to “rock around the Christmas tree”
is directly proportional to the amount of eggnog he has consumed.
mackenzieclench.com
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