'When they are drunk, think twice about it." That isn't the advice footballer Ched Evans followed himself. He didn't think twice as he was blagging his way past a hotel receptionist into a bedroom where his friend was having sex with a girl he didn't know, and took his turn.
And all of this happened without him ever speaking to the girl, who was so drunk that she can't remember anything about the night.
Evans said that people "need educating on alcohol and consent".
He told the media: "I was young at the time and stupid and I wasn't aware of the situations you could potentially find yourself in that would land you in trouble. I have never been taught about anything like that. You get your gambling and drinking training but nothing else on top of that."
Rape cases and sexual consent are never far from the __news here in Ireland either. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) released its recorded crime statistics for 2015 a few months ago, with the figures revealing a 15pc increase in the number of sexual offences recorded by gardaí. Statistics show that recorded sexual offences rose from 2,053 in 2014 to 2,361 in 2015, an increase of 15pc. Recorded incidents of rape increased by 12.6pc to 536, while the number of sexual assaults increased by 14pc to 1,447 offences. These rising figures are even scarier when you consider the 'Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland' report (SAVI). This report found that only one in 10 victims of sexual crime in Ireland actually reports that crime.
Research about consent attitudes was commissioned by the Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) and undertaken by the National University of Ireland in Galway (NUI). From March to December 2013, university students took part in a research project called 'Young People, Alcohol and Sex: What's Consent Got To Do With It?' The subsequent report demonstrated young people's inability to talk about sex and inability to negotiate consent. It found that because of our binge-drinking culture, sex crimes are rarely reported to the appropriate authoritarian figures. Findings also concluded that sex in general is largely not spoken about, while drinking lots of alcohol is the facilitator of most hook-ups.
So, what needs to happen? The Ask Consent campaign launched last year and encourages us to talk about what consent means in the context of having sex with another person. It emphasises that sex without consent is rape and it has sparked a national conversation among survivors who had previously felt silenced or made to feel guilty about their own sexual assault. Consent classes have been rolled out in our colleges.
Compulsory sex education in schools is a policy many campaigners are increasingly trying to push for, but we need to put more pressure on the Government for this. We should be talking about consent at school as soon as we're memorising maths tables.
Attitudes towards sex first begin to develop in the early teenage years, so it makes sense that consent is taught at this level, before it is too late to change bad attitudes.
The work of vital organisations such as the National Women's Council and the Rape Crisis Centre needs to be pushed further into the public sphere so that more people can get help for themselves or others, and so that we can all learn to recognise the behavioural warning signs of offenders. Here again, the Government has a role to play in making sure that their services remain sustainable and are well-funded.
An issue that keeps rearing its ugly head is victim blaming: from people encouraging girls not to wear short skirts to avoid sexual assault, to men blaming drunk girls. For far too long, society has looked to the victim of a rape crime for answers rather than the perpetrator.
For too long, there have been myths around the subject of consent, especially that it is a 'grey' area. In reality, it has never been a grey area. Sex without consent is rape.
If we can take anything from the sad Ched Evans case, it is that the Average Joe on the street probably doesn't understand what sexual consent means and how it works.
Not all men, by the way, but enough men that we need to do something about it.
Adults need consent classes as much as college students.
Then we might be able to dream about a world where men don't take advantage of drunkenness, where they wait to hear an enthusiastic "yes!" and those toxic myths about false rape allegations will finally die.
Irish Independent
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