Sexual assault is a serious and pervasive issue. It is far too frequent. Every 107 seconds, another sexual assault occurs. According to RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network), there is an average of 293,000 instances of sexual assault each year.
Those numbers are entirely too high. Those stats shouldn't even be in the single digits. No one should have to go through the debasement of sexual violence. One would think that in 2016, people would get that 'no' means 'no' and 'yes' means 'yes', but as the years go on the conversation around what is and isn't sexually appropriate continues to circulate. There are actions done to encourage education to prevent sexual violence, namely clarifying when someone consents to sexual contact. This is all well and good, but how far does simplifying the issue go until it's too far? Do we really need a video with a cartoon penis and cartoon vagina to spell out what is and isn’t okay to do to a woman’s body? Are men that out of touch? What gives?
If you don't know what I'm referring to, there is a new media movement to clarify what is and isn’t consent. Project Consent has released several cartoon videos featuring animated male and female body parts interacting like humans do, in an effort to teach what consent is. “Some people think the issue of sexual consent is complicated. We think it’s pretty simple. If it’s not yes, it’s no.”
Recently, I went off on Tyrese and Rev. Run for implying that the way a woman dresses can justify her getting raped. I couldn’t believe how clueless these two sounded. Men like them could use a cartoon about consent to teach them a thing, or thirty. But is the general populace that delusional? If so, they require media that is less… bizarre than this.
Anthropomorphized vaginas are what we’ve been reduced to in order to explain consent to people. I don't think it gets any simpler than that.
Cartoon consent lessons aren’t a new thing. Hell, in Germany they give actual classes on how not to rape. They’re optional. I’m not kidding. Some of you may recognize this video released last year which used tea as a metaphor for sex and consent:
The idea that perhaps the general public needs clearer parameters set about consent isn’t incorrect. Many people who rape, namely young teenage boys, aren’t aware that what they’re doing is wrong. It is important that we make it clear to them what is and isn’t consent. But as much as I appreciate a move to simplify consent for people to understand, this new project is very concerning. Men may be stepped in patriarchal ideology (as we all are, regardless of gender) but are we so far gone that we need consent spelled out like a literal cartoon for children? Many would say, “Well, yes. Because y’all continue to sexually assault us.” And that’s valid. But look at it: it’s a freaking anthropomorphized vagina. Doesn’t that sound like something American Dad or South Park would do for laughs?
Another issue is the way the videos goes about visualizing consent. In them, the cartoon male hand and penis are seen in casual settings with the vagina and boob, whistiling or laughing or dancing to some music. Suddenly the penis/hand gets carried away and begins to touch the boob/beaver, encouraging an uncomfortable response from the female parts. The male parts then back off, and the video ends. This is done in an attempt to show how the absence of a yes is still a no, and in that regard the video works. But its portrayal of inadvertent sexual violation is not convincing. It seems to be implying that men just casually meet women and unleash their penises on them. Statistically, sexual assaults usually happen between familiar parties. These videos would have been much stronger if they had expressed that fact rather than exploited the narrative of strangers losing their inhibitions.
These videos are cute and punchy, but they are not enough. Look, a 20 second cartoon animation will not end sexual assault, and I don't expect it to. But surely there are other measures that can be taken to spread awareness instead of tongue-in-cheek visualizations of talking body parts.
Regardless of its flaws, I appreciate that the project exists because it keeps the conversation going. No matter what, it is important to keep sexual violence and rape culture on the public’s mind; that is how you incite change. After Lady Gaga’s stirring Oscar performance of her rape survivor song “Til It Happens To You”, According to sources, the 'It's On Us' campaign to end sexual violence received 37,401 pledges -- almost 10 times as many pledges as usual, and hashtag #ItsOnUs reached over 348.67 million mentions this week. Bringing awareness to the issue brings change. Hopefully that change comes sooner than later. I think we’d all be much better off without talking vaginas and penises.
