There has been some great coverage of feminist campaigns around sexual consent this week. We’ve been featured in the local press and even in the Independent ( http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/domestic-violence-activists-want-you-to-boycott-fifty-shades–lyuTemIk2l). The debate seems to centre around whether the film and the books should be boycotted, with calls for the money that would have gone to cinemas coming instead to support services such as the ones behind this campaign.
We don’t want to get involved in a boycott, we’re not about telling people what they should and shouldn’t think, in our view that wouldn’t be modelling very good consent. What we want to do is encourage people to think about what sexual consent is in their lives, what it means to them to give active consent, how they know they are doing it.
We know that the grey area that comes from consent is often found in the gap between what consent means in theory and what consent means in practice. We’ve tried to give a range of sexual encounters so that readers can see where they think that consent works and where the sex isn’t agreed and is abusive. We see from the range presented that consent is very rarely a 100% verbal transaction. Consent is about more than just words, it’s about attitude, body language, relational dynamics and lastly about words.
You’ll find lots out there at the moment about consent, 50 Shades of Grey and the feminist response. We’ve listed some of our favourites here. Share your thoughts on the comment blog below, as ever we encourage you to think about what they are presenting and how it fits with your life and your understanding. Oh and if you do want to make a donation please do so via our justgiving pages… https://www.justgiving.com/riseuk/ and/or http://www.survivorsnetwork.org.uk/content/donations
Check out these stories for a range of views on the issues of domestic abuse, consent and fifty shades of grey…
http://mediadiversified.org/2014/12/12/domestic-abuse-not-caught-on-camera/
everydayvictimblaming.com/responses-to-media/6386