Instant Opinion: men ‘getting away with murder’ using ‘rough sex defence’
Your guide to the best columns and commentary on Friday 15 November
The Week’s daily round-up highlights the five best opinion pieces from across the British and international media, with excerpts from each.
1. Joan Smith in The Telegraph
on the shifting definition of consent
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Men are now getting away with murder by using the ‘rough sex’ defence
“A few years ago, this would have been laughed out of court – ‘you’re claiming she asked you to choke her?’ But what’s euphemistically described as ‘rough sex’ has become a staple of online pornography, and strangulation has moved from being a male fantasy to an actual defence used in Britain's courtrooms. Tellingly, while a handful of men have died as a result of what’s known as auto-asphyxiation, all the victims in cases involving two people have been women.”
2. Ewa Jasiewicz in The Guardian
on workers of the world uniting
I was a union organiser. Len McCluskey’s migrant clampdown will only benefit bosses
“Limiting the presence and supply of human beings for capital in this country because you think it will help you organise in workplaces better is not a trade union approach – it’s a boss one. You never punch down. You never collude with the state to stop poor people seeking bread, and you never collude with a classification of people as lesser. You wouldn’t accept a two- or three-tier employment contract system in a workplace, which is rampant today, any more than you should collude with that in immigration status. These concepts of class, underclass, a black-market workers’ class, serve neoliberal states, which continue to pursue policies of atomisation, authoritarianism and poverty class-reproduction. Why would you follow this model?”
3. The editorial board in the Los Angeles Times
on the rinse-and-repeat response to massacres
Santa Clarita shooting: It’s the guns. It’s always the guns
“The tragedies compound, and the grief is visceral. But there is no shock, really, outside the small circle of people directly affected by the gunfire. Because we have seen this too many times before — and we are destined to repeat it for the foreseeable future because we, as a society, choose to let paralysis overwhelm public safety. It’s not a leap to say that no 16-year-old should have ready access to a firearm outside the immediate supervision of an adult.”
4. David M. Perry in CNN
on climate change and its threat to art
Venice is sinking and this time it may go under
“There's a hope that the threat to Venice, the potential loss of so much beauty, might finally stir our political leadership around the world to action. If that were true, while so much could be saved, it would still be a sad indictment that only the Western European art mattered, rather than the millions or billions of people (often poor, often non-white) whose lives are threatened by a climate crisis largely of the West's making.”
5. Joey Ayoub in Al Jazeera
on the remarkable speed of change in the Middle East
The Lebanese revolution must abolish the kafala system
“Today the Lebanese people are rebelling against their own abusers, the warlord-oligarch class that have dominated Lebanese politics for three decades since the end of the country's civil war. Sectarianism, the system which pits the Lebanese against one another based on their religious denominations, is being actively challenged in the streets. We are destroying sectarian barriers at an incredible speed. We are, quite literally, connecting north and south in a way that has left our parents' generation baffled. Whatever happens next, what has already been achieved in the past month will resonate for years to come, and shape a whole generation, Generation Z, in a way that has even taken many millennials by surprise.”
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Today's political cartoons - October 13, 2024
Sunday's cartoons - the swing of things, fear of facts, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 timely cartoons about climate change denial
Cartoons Artists take on textbook trouble, bizarre beliefs, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Kris Kristofferson: the free-spirited country music star who studied at Oxford
In the Spotlight The songwriter, singer and film-star has died aged 88
By The Week UK Published
-
Woman accidentally puts nan in washing machine
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Bizarre pizza toppings horrify Italians
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Cops call woman over hair hanging out of car
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Being nosy 'helps you live longer'
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Celine Dion 'civil war' in New Zealand
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Bangladesh dealing with worst dengue fever outbreak on record
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Glacial outburst flooding in Juneau destroys homes
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
A country still in crisis: Lebanon three years on from Beirut blast
feature Political, economic and criminal dramas are causing a damaging stalemate in the Middle East nation
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published