On April 30, 2018, Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Incorporated and Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, Incorporated, along with Sister and Fratmanners, hosted a sexual assault awareness workshop at San Diego State University.

LTA is an academic and multicultural sorority that was founded at Kean University in 1975. I recently became a sister last semester but our chapter, Gamma Psi, was established at SDSU in 2005. Now let's talk about the workshop.

The workshop starts with a video about a bear eating 1 in 5 guys symbolizing that 1 in 5 female students get sexually assaulted by the time they finish college, starring Jake Johnson and Lamorne Morris from New Girl. One of the guys, Johnson, knows that there is a bear in the other room but doesn't do anything about it because he is scared.

Johnson kept saying, "Just pretend it's not there," and "I don't know what to do about it so just ignore it,". He also said, "bears will be bears, "tying back to the phrase, "boys will be boys,". Johnson stressed the fact that only 1 in 5 guys will be eaten by the bear so it's no big deal. But in reality, it is a big deal because that is a small number.

You probably know 5 other female students and it is scary to think about one of them being sexually assaulted. This was a smart way to start the workshop because this is a sensitive subject. Yes, the video was funny, but it also has a message that is really important. Below is the link to the video. Do you know what exactly is consent? Let's find out.

The two ladies presenting continues with a discussion of what is consent. According to Planned Parenthood, "Consent means actively agreeing to be sexual with someone. Consent lets someone know that sex is wanted. Sexual activity without consent is rape or sexual assault."

The discussion continues with questions like "How do you ask for consent?" and "How do you know someone is interested in you?" Some of the answers were saying it straight up, having eye contact with the person, and body language. This discussion was a little bit awkward because people are not used to being asked questions like these. However, people were laughing and having a good time. Now comes the more serious discussion.

This serious topic that was discussed was that if both people are drunk, they shouldn't have sexual relations. They probably both said yes but the next morning they won't remember saying yes. If these two people are either slurring their words, unbalanced with their movement and not making eye contact with one another, then they should both go home. If they are both interested in one another, then they should try again when they are sober. Everybody agreed to this situation. To reduce the tension in the atmosphere, another video was presented.

Another video about consent was presented. It is called Tea and Consent. It talked about the basic concept that if someone wants a cup of tea and then decides that they don't want it anymore, you can't force them to drink the cup of tea. It also talked about that if they said yes to a cup of tea and then suddenly they are unconscious, you also can't force them to drink that cup of tea.

This parallels with consent. If someone said yes to sex, then that means yes. But if they said yes, and then changed their minds, then it's a no. This was my favorite video that was presented in this workshop because it was very straightforward to the point. I provided the video below if you're interested.

This was a wonderful workshop that I attended because consent is a subject that should be discussed on a daily basis. It is very important to know what is right and what is wrong on the basis of sex. At the end of the workshop, condoms and other free stuff were given out to the students. I encourage anyone who is reading this article to watch these videos and to do some research on consent. Consent does matter and it affects people around you.