Saying no means exactly that — nothing else

THERE are few words in any language less ambiguous than no. No means not happening, not at all, nothing, zilch, nada, nil, not on, naught, nowt, not a damn thing, get your coat, go home. No means no.

Except when it comes to sexual consent, where no has apparently been reconfigured to mean maybe. The aptly named Robin Thicke has squeezed a hit out of this manmade ambiguity with the ‘rapey’ track ‘Blurred Lines’, but we can’t really blame one R&B muppet for a culture of no meaning maybe.

There has been talk in the UK recently of lowering the age of consent from 16 to 15, and while the idea of criminalising two 15 year olds for having sex remains absurd and Orwellian, the lowering of the age to 15 might just weaken the word no even more. We may have reared our kids, male and female, in households where words like respect and consent are revered, but our kids are the first generation to grow up within the pornification of mainstream sexuality. Not that this is about censorship — God, no — but being able to download porn on your smartphone at the bus stop on the way home from school has not done the reality, gravitas and significance of the word no any favours.