The Assange Rape Case

A reader cuts to the chase:

Here's a central fact about 'withdrawal-of-consent' in the Assange case that I've never been able to get clear on. Even after reading a lot of the back-and-forth, it's not clear to me. That fact is: Did the woman tell Assange to stop? Is that part of the accusation? Or does a condom breaking constitute an automatic withdrawal of consent? This is central for me because if the woman said to stop and he didn't, that's clearly rape to me. If she did not tell him to stop, then it's clearly not rape to me.

It seems unlikely to me that anyone would include a situation that did not include an explicit 'no' under the category of rape, but then I've learned that feminists often believe things that I find impossible to imagine. If you can get any clarity on your blog about this central fact--did Assange receive an explicit 'no', and is such a request required for criminality under Swedish law--it would be much appreciated.

Indeed.

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