There's one thing Donald Trump could learn from 'Walking Dead' villain Negan
This post contains spoilers for The Walking Dead Season 7, episode 3, titled “The Cell.” If you missed that installment, catch up with our recap.
If you've been paying any attention to The Walking Dead, you know that Negan is not exactly a good dude.
The character, played with menacing charm by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, swaggered into the show and immediately took a life. Then he took one more life. And then he dragged our hero, Rick Grimes, on an RV ride from hell and convinced him to chop his son's arm off with a hatchet (which Negan put a stop to at the last second, but still). Negan topped off that roller coaster of a season premiere by kidnapping everyone's favorite redneck, Daryl Dixon.
So no, not a swell guy.
You May Also Like
Episode 3 gave us a deeper look into Negan's world, and hidden between all the dog food sandwiches, walkers raining down from overpasses, naked Daryls and repeats of that earworm "Easy Street" song, there was one moment I could not stop thinking about.
As Negan offers Dwight (Austin Amelio) an encounter with his former wife, Sherry, he says that he can "have" anyone he wants, "as long as she says, 'yes.'" The discussion itself is not exactly wonderful for women, who are apparently viewed as cattle to be traded, but there is a golden nugget there.
Negan stresses consent.
He does this in the graphic novels, as well, saying multiple times that is is forbidden for the Saviors to rape anyone. (Although he doesn't really specify how he defines rape, which always seemed morally murky to me.)
The TV version of Negan seems to be a little more clear about what rape actually is. To most of us, we understand that you need positive affirmation to have consensual sex, and that "non-consensual sex" is sexual assault.
Negan's down with positive verbal consent. He doesn't say not to hurt the woman Dwight may or may not decide to sleep with. He doesn't say, "Don't take her by force." He says, "as long as she says, 'yes.'"
This may seem like a subtle line to some, but it's especially poignant now.
The United States has a president-elect who doesn't seem to value consent as much as Negan does. And that says a lot.
Even a monster who revels in killing people with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire (while anthropomorphizing said bat), is totally cool with marrying another man's wife, and doesn't hesitate to use mental and emotional torture, still knows that you should probably respect a woman's right to control her own body.
That's something we'll have to grapple with for a while now.
