Penna Dexter

The feminist Left may not admit it, but the #MeToo movement is a sign that the sexual revolution has failed women. Accounts of real sexual assault and harassment are pouring in, resulting in heavy costs to the perpetrators. But there's also a simmering discontent among women with the sexual culture as a whole. A recent account of a date-gone-bad resulted in the very public humiliation of comedian, Aziz Ansari. An anonymous woman called "Grace" accuses him of violating her, and yet she admits to being (at first) a participant. When she firmly protested and wanted to leave, Mr. Ansari called a car. What "Grace" experienced was an awful date, not sexual assault. Women may not like the state of romance that prevails in our culture but it's really what the feminists asked for. Feminists succeeded in arranging things so women could treat sex the way many men do. The broader culture doesn't see no-strings sex as wrong anymore. But in practice, most women don't separate sex from relationship as easily as men do. Two popular female columnists — both in their sixties, I'm guessing — write about this. Mona Charen writes at Townhall.com, "Sadly, our culture has so exalted sexual license that the only form of sexual conduct women are permitted to protest is coercion." Women of strong faith can avoid this trap. And common sense tells us that if a woman doesn't want a date to be about sex, she can and should communicate that by her actions. She should set her boundaries ahead of time. She has every right to refuse a man's advances. Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan wrote in a column entitled "America Needs More Gentlemen" that "we have lost track of what it is to be a gentleman" and "we should rescue that old and helpful way of being." She continues, "The whole culture, especially women, needs the Gentleman back." Yes — and we need ladies to act like ladies.