Obey the Law: No Means No

Howard got Mel Feit, the executive director of the National Center for Men, on the line to discuss the following topic: If a man is having sex with a woman, and, during it, she announces she wants to stop, but the man continues until he orgasms, is that rape?

While Robin, Howard and Fred said they thought such an act would constitute rape, Artie disagreed, but Mel revealed Artie was wrong.

Mel then brought up a story that appeared in Time Magazine about a 16-year-old boy who continued to have sex with an 18-year-old woman for five seconds after she decided she didn’t want to do it with him anymore – even though they’d already started the deed with her consent – and was sentenced to a 15-year prison sentence as a result. Upon hearing that story, Howard acknowledged he might change his mind about whether that constituted rape.

Dominic Barbara called back in to report he’d dealt with similar cases in the past, and that there was “no way” a man could be convicted of rape in such a scenario. Because of this, Dominic added he thought there were other facts in Mel’s story that led to the boy’s jail sentence. Dominic then reported he knew additional facts in regard to Mel’s scenario, and that it wasn’t as simple as Mel was making it out to be. Dominic proceeded to say drugs were involved with the boy and the woman, and that, since there were other males present, she was scared about what was happening to her.

Following those revelations, Howard acknowledged he agreed that the boy was probably guilty of rape, although Benjy pointed out the case was being appealed.