Last night on The Bachelor Australia saw Nick ‘Honey Badger’ Cummins go on the first single dates of the season.
After a romantic beach picnic with Shannon, Nick surprised the women by turning up to the mansion and taking Romy out for lunch at his uncle’s pizza restaurant in Manly.
But the afternoon quickly went from plain awkward – Romy forgetting Uncle Mike’s name and some confusion over jalapenos – to the 29-year-old attempting to kiss the Honey Badger, ignoring the verbal and non-verbal cues that he wasn’t into it.
“Only thing for me is that I like to hold off a bit and establish a real connection and try and make it more meaningful,” Nick said, as he tried to diffuse the situation on the couch.
But Romy continued, managing to kiss Nick on the lips before he turned away and she continued to kiss his neck.
Furthermore, that night at the cocktail party, Romy again asked for alone time with Nick, before kissing his neck and lying all over him.
Though Nick, again, diffused the situation before it went any further, many are pointing out how different people’s reactions would have been if the situations had been reversed and a man had forced himself on a woman multiple times in one evening.
“It’s calculated and willful ignorance of a person’s signals and interest levels, this is not okay in 2018” one person wrote on Twitter.
“She kind of forced that situation… consent is a thing,” another said.
With all the conversations about consent spurring from the #MeToo movement, it’s more important than ever that we establish a clear, universal understanding that if someone doesn’t seem wholeheartedly into it, if they are too drunk to properly consent (no matter whether it’s your first night meeting them or if you’re married to them), if it’s not a resounding YES, it is a no.
Man or woman.
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