Project Consent is a non-profit, volunteer based campaign that is dedicated to combating rape culture by teaching the general public about consent. According to their website, Project Consent "aims to combat and deconstruct rape culture by raising awareness of the harmful way with which it is regarded in society, educating our audience about the disparity of discussion of sexual assault, and promoting positive dialogue about the importance of consent." Project Consent was founded in 2014, and since then has gained global attention and has partnered with different publications and human rights organizations to bring out a conversation about rape culture and ultimately try to diminish it. The project believes that building a "consent culture" is the first step to battling sexual assault. Their view on consent is simple: if it's not a yes, it's a no.
At the end of last month, Project Consent released a video campaign that has gotten the attention of many people. The three videos released feature animated body parts (breasts, vagina, penis, bottom and a hand) doing different things like dancing, whistling and laughing. At a point in each video, one of the body parts "gets a little too close" without consent, and when told "no", automatically backs off. Through these 30 second videos, Project Consent is trying to teach the public about the simplicity of consent. The videos were produced by an advertising company in Toronto, whose Chief Creative Officer said, "The goal of the campaign is to get people to see consent differently. It isn't a messy and complicated issue. Again, it's simple. If it's not yes, it's no." Project Consent's goal is to make it be known that "consent is always an established right, not a removable luxury" and teach people that the victim should not be blamed. Not only does project consent deal with the matter of victim blaming which we've read about and talked about a lot in class, it also (obviously) focuses on the issue of consent, which is something else that we talk about a lot. The two go hand in hand oftentimes since rape cases and sexual assault cases are not so cut and dry, and many times the case is dismissed or the perpetrator doesn't get enough punishment because of the issue of consent and how blurred the lines can be. We spent a good amount of one class talking about if we think consent has to be a verbal "yes" and otherwise it is a "no" (which Project Consent preaches) or if it is sometimes more realistic to rely on physical cues for consent. We also touched on what consent means for couples who have been together for many years, or when there are substances involved, etc. The issue of consent is one that appears in every rape or sexual assault case. Although the videos are silly and might trivialize the very real issue of consent, rape and sexual assault, I think that what Project Consent does is awesome and I think the videos are a good way to get the message out to the general pubic in an entertaining way. Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/let-this-cheerful-dancing-vagina-teach-you-about-consent_us_56d5afc5e4b03260bf78185e Project Consent's Website: http://www.projectconsent.com (Due to technical issues I could only upload two of them, but all three videos are in the article link):
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