Men on the Internet Do This All the Time, but Don’t Realize It’s a Crime

Pop quiz for all the men out there: A woman blocks you on an online platform.

What’s your next move?

You want more context, you say? Technically, you shouldn’t need any more than that, but I’ll play along.

Let’s say you left a comment on one of her articles on the topic of consent. You had a take on it that felt borderline dangerous to her, and ended by insisting that coercion only happens when physical force is involved — a favorite stance of men who like to keep the definition of rape as narrow as possible.

She pointed that out and noted that coercion includes a wide range of manipulative behavior, not exclusive to physical force. Then she blocked you, because she finds men who refuse to acknowledge the full scope of coercion to be dangerous. She doesn’t want men like that to be able to get anywhere near her.

So what would you do next?

This is a real-life situation that recently happened to me.

It’s somewhat unusual — at least the part where I engaged with the initial comment. I’m a big fan of the block feature. There’s no need to…