Ohio University student change organization, F--kRapeCulture, is launching the start of a video campaign, attempting to send the message that “consent is sexy.”
Allie Erwin, co-founder of F--kRapeCulture and a senior studying political science, said the group is trying to film about 100 responses of students, faculty and community members to open the discussion about consent and sex, inspired by a film done by the Vagina Monologues at Connecticut College, asking 100 men, “Why are vaginas important to you?”
“We want to get as many people as possible talking about consent and how to have healthy sex,” Erwin said.
As a survivor of sexual assault, she said it’s important to have conversations about consent and “enthusiastic consent,” and building on prior knowledge of consent to promote change.
“I think that’s what’s missing a lot of the times when we talk about problems with sexual violence and disrespect for people’s bodily autonomy; we focus so much on the negative and what’s wrong but we don’t use what’s good and what exists already to build positive momentum for change,” she said.
In light of the recent grand jury decision to not press charges in the alleged rape case Uptown, Erwin said she hopes to continue fighting to inform people about what proper consent is.
“In the eyes of the court, no crime was committed, but from an ethical standpoint, it is problematic that they were so inebriated,” Erwin said. “True consent means being aware of what you are doing and enthusiastically choosing to engage in that activity. That obviously did not happen.”
Landon Cohen, filmmaker of the campaign and a senior studying English, said he thinks the campaign will put a face to those who are starting the conversation about consent in light of the rape culture discussions on campus.
“I think that not a lot of people can put a face to all these names that are talking about this topic and I think having faces to look at and hearing why consent is important to them will make people who are watching it realize why consent is important to them and how it applies to their own life,” Cohen said.
Erwin said people should come to Tuesday’s film session, and future sessions as well, even if participants want to just talk about consent instead of being on camera to accomplish the group’s first “real” initiative of educating people.
Claire Chadwick, co-founder of F--kRapeCulture and a junior studying sociology, said educating the community is an important issue to her.
“I think consent is an issue that we deal with a lot, especially in Athens, and I think that it’s important for people to have an understanding of what healthy and enthusiastic consent is,” Chadwick said. “So I think it’s important for people to have knowledge on issues like consent and share that knowledge, and I think that’s the goal of this video.”
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