The cultural acceptability and effectiveness of the asking for consent is incidental to the issue at stake. I honestly find it shocking that so many people on

The cultural acceptability and effectiveness of the asking for consent is incidental to the issue at stake. I honestly find it shocking that so many people on HN are having such difficulty accepting the principal of expressly verbalized consent. Surely we can move on from the notion that men need to "be dominant" and "force her to rebuff your advances". While a particular culture may call for certain shifts in attitude, that does not mean verbalized consent is not important. >I think Neil Gaiman's thoughts "Why defend freedom of icky speech" is particularly relevant here. I think a key distinction between the subject of Gaiman's thoughts and the material at hand is that "Above the Game" purports to offer advice applicable to real word scenarios. This advice, however, will, unquestionably, lead to sexual assault if followed (not in every case, but in some). I would certainly find it dubious for the United States Government to condemn the book, but I feel that Kickstarter's stance is defensible from the position of not wanting to be associated with such dangerous and callous material.