What is Consent?
This session is aimed at helping YP explore the concept of consent. Teenagers can feel incredible pressure to have sex before they are ready to and there is often a misconception that “everybody is doing it.” Society perpetuates the myth that maleness, masculinity and sexual success are the same thing. Men who are considered high status in peer groups are generally those who are considered to have more sexual or physical success. This is routinely mirrored in the media, in films like American Pie or The Girl Next Door and many other teen comedies.
On the other hand, there is a double standard that becomes apparent with young women as they are not routinely celebrated for having lots of sexual partners and in fact can experience a considerable degree of stigma and shame if they do. All these societal messages can lead to YP believing that sex and sexual contact is something that young men should initiate, push for and complete often and that young women should do their best to resist such advances. For these reasons it’s important to teach both young men and women about consent. Young women may feel that if they have not directly said “no” or pushed the other person away then they have allowed sex to happen even though they did not want to. This can cause the greatest amount of pain when a YP feels they haven’t done enough to prevent sex from happening. This is why it is necessary to teach both about positive consent and help young people to have more direct conversations about sex so that they can keep themselves and the other person safe by ensuring they have enthusiastic consent before they proceed.
- To understand what consent is and what can prevent an individual from being able to give consent
- For the YP to learn that asking and receiving enthusiastic sexual consent is an important aspect of any healthy relationship
- For the YP to acknowledge the importance of both parties enjoying sex and that this can also make having sex more fun
- For the YP to recognise that consent is not possible if one or both people are under the influence of drugs or alcohol
Ensure the YP understands that any sexual contact requires consent as does the sharing of intimate pictures or videos. Sharing such pictures without the consent of everyone in them is illegal. These issues are covered further in the session on Online Behaviour and Technology.
It is important also to include in the discussion that sexual contact includes kissing, touching if for the purpose of sexual gratification and that consent is also needed for showing sexual organs to another person.
