Undressing Consent
Undressing Consent: A Pleasurable Approach to Learning About Consent, Rejection, and Sexual Violence
Undressing Consent is a 90-minute skill-building seminar, led by trained facilitators in small groups for either women/nonbinary individuals or men. Facilitators engage participants in discussions and reflections on consent, sexual violence, sexuality, and its impact on our community. Undressing Consent was created in response to a series of events at Western University in September 2021, that led to a national conversation around sexual violence and accountability. Following an online module developed by the University and the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children where students learned how to define the concepts of consent and sexual violence, Anova lead the curriculum development and facilitation of an innovative training made mandatory by the university to all 5000 first years in residence. Undressing Consent is now available to other groups interested in preventing sexual violence.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does talking about sexual rejection help prevent sexual violence?
How does talking about porn prevent sexual violence?
How does talking about pleasure/desire prevent sexual violence?
Outcomes of this training are focused on:
• Enhancing consent communication – verbal and nonverbal approaches
• Understanding the full spectrum of what constitutes sexual violence and identifying and confronting the areas of sexual violence that are not as clear as we may believe
• Unpacking sexual scripts and their influence on our expectations and behaviours
• Reflecting on sexual desires outside of these normative scripts
Why is the training focused on these key outcomes?
You can look at the research base here: Answering the Whys of the Undressing Consent Curriculum. We have highlighted the research findings below.
Why Cover Nonverbal/Indirect and Grey Areas of Consent
What we are trying to achieve:
* Thinking through context, intent, and impact
* Navigating ethically grey areas around alcohol and capacity
* Understanding both verbal and nonverbal sexual communication
* Understanding the difference between coercion vs convincing
Why Focus on Porn and Sexual Scripts
What we are trying to achieve:
* Consider where we learn about sexual values
* Reflect on how sexual scripts impact our behaviour and assumptions
* Recognize the gendered expectations around pleasure politics, lack of verbal navigating of consent and sexual initiation that porn and other sexual scripting sets up
Why Focus on Rejection
What we are trying to achieve:
* Normalizing and de-personalizing rejection
* Thinking about what rejection feels like, and why it can be so hard
* Identifying healthy ways to handle rejection, both in the moment and in the aftermath
Why Focus on Pleasure
What we are trying to achieve:
* Increasing personal awareness of one’s own sexual desires. This supports more quickly being able to identify when we don’t like something that is happening in a sexual encounter, and increases our ability to get out of the situation. Importantly – it is never our fault if we don’t recognize when it is something we do not want and/or cannot get out of the situation.
* Rewriting sexual scripts by considering our personal desires
* Normalizing the vast spectrum of sexualities and sexual preferences
TESTIMONIALS
“Over the course of the last semester, I have facilitated roughly 22 sessions for hundreds of young female, non-binary/gender non-conforming, and male students. I was honoured to be a part of this “third-wave” sex positive approach to sexual violence prevention. This approach moves away from targeting specific groups (e.g., teaching women rape avoidance strategies or telling young men to not sexually offend) to creating safe spaces for students to learn about how to improve their sexual communication and respect for each other’s boundaries. As a student, this approach pushed me to reflect upon my own experiences, values, opinions, and intersectionality of identities to facilitate non-judgement and open spaces for all students to discuss topics such as sex, consent, and sexual violence. I also got to learn from my other co-facilitators, all of whom came with their own unique areas of expertise and experiences. For example, one of my co-facilitators modelled ways to engage a quiet group, while another taught me numerous facts on STIs that came in handy during a one-on-one discussion with a concerned student later on. Lastly, I found this work to be very meaningful as I got to observe the impact of my work in real time. I got to witness moments of connection between students from different backgrounds over the secrecy in their communities surrounding topics such as sex and sexual violence. I got to observe students respectfully challenge opinions and beliefs of their peers that supported acceptance of violence against women and non-binary identities. I got to hold spaces following these discussions for students to disclose their own experiences of violence and provide them with resources on- and off-campus to support their healing. Overall, my experiences as a facilitator in this program were both personally fulfilling and provided me with ample opportunities for growth as someone who wishes to work with youth in the future as a clinician.” – Undressing Consent: A Pleasurable Approach to Learning About Consent, Desire, and Sexual Violence Facilitator