Women have, for a long time, known exactly what kind of disgusting sexual behavior to expect from their husbands and boyfriends.  But, for the most part, women were left to operate blindly when it came to how many disgusting men they were meeting outside the home. 

Not anymore.

A provision buried in the Affordable Care Act will require all men to predict, based on past behavior, their likelihood of harassing the women they meet and to identify in clear language the emotional weight they will be adding to women’s plates. Like calorie-labeling on menus, another controversial part of the Affordable Care Act, the male-labeling provision initially met with resistance.  However, after nearly two months of delays, the Women’s Right to Exist (WRE) subcommittee has finally pushed through the policy.

According to the policy, all men—from the youth group minister at your church, to the co-worker in the next cubicle, to that innocuous looking family man who just moved next door—will have to be upfront with the women they meet about just how many wolf whistles, dirty jokes, breast-brushes, and unsolicited hugs can be expected while in their company.

Among the provision’s rules are those requiring men to post “on their Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites the number of trips to a therapist associated with spending time with them.” Another section in the law mandates that store clerks, construction workers, car salesmen, gas station attendants, and pretty much all teenage boys “indicate in writing how many winks, lick-lips, and hip thrusts they can be expected to dose out.” Yet another section requires male college professors to tabulate on their course syllabi the percentage of female students they have mentored in the past and to lay out, in clear and conspicuous language, exactly what sort of sex acts female students may trade for grades.

In some states, homegrown versions of male labeling are already happening.  After being outed, several major harassers started to move in this direction voluntarily. It’s why you can see men like Ben Affleck and Louis C.K. coming forward to self-identify and why some of your male co-workers are now offering to keep their hands on their desks and visible at all times during department meetings.

However, not all men are as eager to label themselves. The Act was initially beset by delays because of intense lobbying from various factions of men’s advocacy groups who have pushed for, among other things, the right to only count the acts of sexual harassment they think they’ve committed, instead of the actual number women have accused them of.  Drunken gropers and inappropriate oglers similarly argued that male-labeling, while appropriate for date rapists, would be too embarrassing and inconvenient for them.  Male bosses, for their part, tried to keep the sharing of pornographic memes and ranking of female employees based on their looks out of the regulations altogether, on the basis of “boys will be boys.”

Even some women have called the Act an infringement of their liberty: “I think we should have the right to be harassed without expecting it,” said one.  “Stupid feminists. Whatever happened to old-fashioned spontaneity?”

The White House, too, pushed back against the policy, with the president calling the act a “witch hunt” and complaining that he now feels uncomfortable stealing kisses and accidentally slipping his hands up women’s skirts. 

But the legislation has been approved, thanks to the #MeToo movement and slowly-growing public support for the idea that women are, indeed, fully sentient beings.

The FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has since said of the regulations that male labeling is not a Left or Right issue, comparing it to the menu-labeling provision: “I’m quite sure that a lot of conservatives, including myself, have turned over packages in stores to look at the calorie information and appreciate that that information is there. It’s a safe bet that women, too, might appreciate a heads-up if their dentist plans to cop a feel while they’re under anaesthesia. It’s just nice to know, you know?”

Gottleib was quick to point out that the provisions do not, under any circumstance, require men to quit harassing women; they simply enable women to calculate how many moments of degradation they can be expected to endure so they might have a healthier understanding of their own feelings of shame, withdrawal, and overall bitterness.

“I’ve worked on man-labeling for 15 years, and am thrilled that at long last, women will be able to determine exactly how many hits to their self-esteem they’re taking in,” said Fred Waterford, Director of Gender Policy at the Gilead Center for Women’s Emotional Wellness.

Experts say the Act could have a far-reaching impact, and not just on the choices individual women make about what outfits to wear to interviews, where to stand on the train if they prefer not to be pressed against by strangers, and which neighborhood fathers their daughters carpool to school with.

An interesting, although entirely unintended, side effect of the policy may actually encourage men to reformulate the way they interact with women. After male-labeling was implemented in a pilot study in Seattle in 2009, men tweaked their behavior and reported not grabbing women’s asses in crowded bars as often as they did before.

However, not all health experts expect change to happen overnight. Researchers have found that men who are already aware that women aren’t objects tend to avoid predatory behavior, but those who aren’t don’t.

There’s also the question of whether male labels are accurate: one study found that while admissions of predatory behavior generally hit the mark, there was some variation.  Nearly 40 percent of men tested had 100 more acts of sexist and degrading behavior associated with them than their labels suggested.

Still, these changes could have profound indirect effects on women, reducing the time they spend blaming themselves because they should have known better.

Which of course, leaves them with more time to weigh the consequences of that McFlurry they’ve been saving their calories all week to enjoy.