It's mandatory.
It's almost 2018, and apparently this is still a hard concept to grasp. Unless it's sexualized, as messed up as that is. We have to slap on a slogan like "Consent is sexy" for people to step back and think, "Huh. Yeah, that's fair."
We're not children. We are adults. Actual adults. It's not an idea that is somehow too advanced for us to understand. It is quite literally a matter of "Yes" and "No." We literally could not set the bar lower for men, yet here we are.
We've always been taught "sex sells," but we shouldn't be reduced to that type of branding around increasing awareness for sexual violence and assault. Consensual sex isn't something to be dressed up and sold to us like a product, or something that we have to rebrand to attempt to get people to understand. We are not children. We don't need to be shown a children's book with simple language and colorful pictures to finally help us grasp a concept.
Consensual sex is mandatory. It is essential. We shouldn't have to say it, but we'll scream it from the mountaintops if we have to. And apparently, we do.
Hundreds of incredibly brave individuals have been coming forward and voicing their own personal histories with sexual harassment, exposing powerful individuals belonging to multiple industries and career fields who exploited their positions for personal gain and sexual advances. From companies analyzing their sexual harassment policies to a tidal wave of brave stories from individuals announcing "#MeToo" on social media, sparking the nation's biggest sexual harassment controversy since the 90's.
To further show that this is still a problem we face today, Fox News legal analyst Mercedes Colwin said on "Hannity" on November 9th that women who experience sexual harassment and assault are "very few and far between."
"No" is not consent. "No" but then eventually "Yes" is not consent. Saying nothing is not consent. Intoxicated consent is not consent. Yes, and only a mutual yes, is consent.
Consent isn't sexy, it's mandatory. We shouldn't have to sexualize consensual sex to get men to finally grasp that concept. We literally could not be setting the bar lower for men, as a society. We shouldn't have to make it catchy for billboards to get the message across.
