‘They tried to break me’: Breitbart Meets Consent Class Critic George Lawlor

Second only to Breitbart’s own Milo Yiannopoulos for the third-wave feminists’ Most Hated Award 2015 would be British university student George Lawlor. Breitbart Tech caught up with Lawlor to hear his reflections on the episode that he says has ”come to define him.”

George Lawlor is a student at Warwick University in the UK. On October 14, his life changed dramatically after he wrote an article for student journal The Tab outlining, “Why I don’t need consent lessons.“

Lawlor argued that “any decent, sympathetic human” understands the nuances of sexual consent and that boys like himself “don’t have to be taught not to be rapists.” He used a picture of himself with a sign that read “This is not what a rapist looks like.”

Hardly controversial, you might think. After all, the classes were just a new initiative springing up on University campuses, and average attendance across universities for the classes was very low, surely indicating that most people didn’t feel they needed them.

Many progressives didn’t agree. The story was picked up across the national media, with The Telegraph’s Rebecca Reid saying he ‘spectacularly misses the point’ and the Metro’s Haddie Gladwell attempting to discredit him on the basis that he was ‘white and privileged.’

Lawlor became the victim of online and physical abuse. He showed me hundreds of messages, including death threats and rape accusations. He was even physically attacked and chased by a group of enraged feminists on a night out in Leamington Spa.

I requested screenshots from specific aggressors. Lawlor declined, saying that he ”refuses to stoop to their level.” Of course, examples weren’t hard for me to find on my own.

When I ask his feelings about the abuse, he laughs it off. ”It was hellish at times, but after a while all the abuse just becomes meaningless. A lot of the abuse on Twitter just made me laugh.”

Like many other young men, Lawlor believes that modern feminism has lost its way. ”I believe in lawful equality, but third-wave feminism is just a waste of time. In fact it’s worse than that, it’s medieval, as many feminists treat people solely based on their race, gender, or privilege. In my case they judged me because I was a straight white male.

“If you refuse to conform to their totalitarian world view, they’ll do their damned best to publicly humiliate you, and I’m the living proof. They tried to break me.”

Despite the backlash, he insists he has no regrets over his article, although he admits he might have done some things differently. “I would’ve handled the media better I think and been more on the offensive. I don’t like being portrayed as a victim. As far as I’m concerned, I opened up the debate, and that makes me a winner.

”The article and its implications will forever be out there, and I am now the face of the consent classes debate. It has come to define me. I don’t regret it one bit though, I had that opinion and the time and still have now.

“The only thing that bothers me is the fact the name George Lawlor is now somehow synonymous with rape culture. Some people have said, hey look, there’s that rape guy, even though of course I’ve never assaulted anyone.”

Lawlor, who cites his political heroes as Ayn Rand, Thomas Jefferson and Nigel Farage, is planning a career in journalism, although he is currently focused on finishing his degree, provided he doesn’t get thrown out of the university first.

Authorities at British universities are known not to take kindly to conservative voices of resistance within their student bodies, meaning students such as Lawlor are constantly at risk of disciplinary action. 

What has failed to be reported in the mainstream media is the overwhelming support Lawlor has received for his article. “[Feminists] have a way of making themselves seem like the majority because they make so much noise, but in reality I’ve found that the majority of my friends, colleagues and the online community agree with me. I’ve received hundreds of messages of support.”

He acknowledges that the experience has also presented him with exciting opportunities. Lawlor has appeared on the Victoria Derbyshire show, This Morning and on BBC radio to discuss the issue. “For better or worse though, my life will never be the same again.”