Consent is a word that not everyone knows the meaning of when it comes to real-life situations. Consent is plain and simply the mutual agreement to do something, sexual or not! This applies to many things! For example, there is a video called 'Tea Consent' that I saw many years ago.
To summarize it, consent is like tea. If your friend says they want tea, make them tea. If they say they don't want tea, don't make them tea. If they say they want tea, you make it, and then they change their mind, you should not force the tea down their throat.
It's the same concept with sex. If someone says they want sex and you want sex, have sex with them. If one of you does not want sex, don't have sex. Also, do not force someone to have sex. This concept is simple, yet a lot of people don't seem to get it.
There has been a lot of controversy around Harvey Weinstein, an American film producer. There have been at least 60 people who have spoken out against Harvey Weinstein claiming that they were sexually harassed and/or sexually assaulted by him in the span of their careers in Hollywood. The #metoo movement has come out of this claim against Weinstein.
Also See: The "Me Too" Campaign Reminds Us It's Important To Share Your Story
On top of the Weinstein allegations, every year, there is a big story of someone sexually harassing and assaulting another. But consent is not that hard. I want to make sure you understand that I am not directing this at just men because women can also sexually harass and assault.
But there is an obvious problem with sexual allegations in our country. Every 98 seconds another American is sexually assaulted. That's crazy. But it makes sense why I've been taught to not dress provocatively, carry my keys between my fingers when walking alone at night, and not to drink too much at a party.
In a country where we have a president who can proudly say things like "Grab them by the pussy," it's not a shock to me that 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men have experienced rape in their lifetime. I'm tired of hearing about a serial rapist on my university's campus or someone being raped and no one doing anything about it. Consent is not that hard. Communication is key. If everyone when having sex would just ask the other person if they have their consent, we would have less rape.
If everyone understood consent, there wouldn't be stories about someone being raped while they were drunk. This is a very big problem in our country, obviously, so maybe we need to be teaching consent in school more. Maybe, just maybe, there might be one less person who commits rape and learns about consent.
