So the lovely woman who does my gel nails is someone I’ve known for 12 years. Apart from Covid I’ve seen her every 3 weeks for all that time. More than lots of my closest friends! We’ve always got on really well and we talk about anything and everything. She’s been dating on and off all this time and she often asks advice.

She’s been seeing this guy for a few months. They are exclusive, it’s all going well, completely fine. He’s from a different country and a culture where the men generally revere their women and when they commit, they COMMIT. She’s been happy with all the respect and consideration, very different to the guys she’s dated before.

So we were chatting the other day and she said that he’d told her that if a woman he was dating said no to sex he “wouldn’t accept that”. I SCREAMED, mentioned the notion of consent and was horrified when she said “but it wouldn’t really be rape would it?” FUCK YES IT WOULD. I was so surprised. I wouldn’t have said she’d label herself a feminist, but I know she’s super strong and I was shocked beyond words.