Students Advocating for Consensual Sex

Students Advocating for Consensual Sex

By:Courtney Brown

Rape Culture is something we have been experiencing for a long time and it is an ongoing problem in society today. Even though consent is advocated today by numerous people everybody does not practice it. Rape Culture plays a huge part in this because there are ten times as many music videos, magazine ads, songs, and clothing atoms that basically sale sex instead of advocating for safe sex. In 1993, Antioch College introduced a policy by the name of "Ask First" and it mandated that students on campus get permission from their partner for every act to be performed before engaging in any sexual behaviors. This policy was ridiculed and talked about in the most negative ways once introduced. Saturday Night Live made a parody called "Consent" and today consent is more widely accepted and made a slogan on a number of different products. Why is it that when a college passed a policy mandating this it was ridiculed but when a comedy show makes it a joke it is widely accepted and people start advocating it? Today there is movement started by students that is called "Consent is Sexy".

This movement is about students encouraging their fellow classmates to ask for consent before engaging in any sexual acts. These students say that they want to make consent cooler than Antioch did. I feel as if consent should have always been necessary and people should advocate for it more often instead of falling into this Rape Culture trap that is taking of society today. In my opinion we are still in a culture of consumption where there is still increasing commercialization of sex in the media. We are still in the liberal swing of sexuality and things are getting more and more out of hand. Two activists from Baltimore started an organization called “Force: Upsetting Rape Culture”. Their group goes around to different colleges and tries to teach students how to spread the anti-rape message. Campus organizations are taking the knowledge they learned from these activist and having “Consent Days” in which they have discussion and panels with condom giveaways and branded t-shirts that advocate for consent. By advocating this message within this mainstream culture they are able to put the message out there and appealing to people who are extremely into the mainstream culture and want to fit it in. Force put the message out there that “consent is all about having a good time. Rape is only a good time if you’re a rapist.” I'm sure people today would laugh at this and think that it is funny but in reality it is true.[1]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/education/edlife/students-advocate-for-consensual-sex.html?_r=0

http://thefeministanthropologist.com/2013/03/04/this-is-what-consent-looks-like/

---

[1] Kitroeff, Natalie. "Making Consent Cool." The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/education/edlife/students-advocate-for-consensual-sex.html?_r=0 (accessed April 29, 2014). ^↩