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Topic

Consent is a low bar: Building a pleasure-centred practice for violence prevention

School of Social Work

Date & location

• Tuesday, July 23, 2024
• 12:30 P.M.
• Clearihue Building, Room B021

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Bruce Wallace, School of Social Work, ·¬ÇÑÉçÇø (Supervisor)
• Dr. Sarah Hunt, School of Environmental Studies, UVic (Co-Supervisor)
• Dr. Mehmoona Moosa-Mitha, School of Social Work, UVic (Member)

External Examiner

• Dr. Natalie Clark, School of Social Work and Human Service, Thompson Rivers University

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Linda Welling, Department of Economics, UVic

Abstract

Indigenous resistance to colonial gender-based violence, Black feminism, and the broader anti-violence movement have brought issues of sexual harassment and assault into mainstream discourse. This advocacy has led to the creation of violence prevention programs, typically led by non-profit organizations, which advocate for educational workshops as a method for preventing sexual assault. Through my own experiences working in anti-violence education, I have come to question the ways that such prevention efforts can rely solely on teaching consent and reduce conversations about sex to the avoidance of assault.

In this research, I sought to understand how youth education could be expanded to better resist oppression and account for pleasure. To do so, I asked eight community-based educators what they have come to understand as core principles of sex positive, feminist, decolonial, and anti-racist education about sex and relationships. My research emphasizes the necessity of using a structural analysis of power dynamics, ensuring that education represents the youth that it seeks to serve, and using de-stigmatized and contextually relevant information. By synthesizing academic and community perspectives, this research then articulates strategies for enacting consent education that is informed by Black feminism, Indigenous resurgence, and queer theories. This research offers a vision of sex-positive violence prevention education framework which raises the bar far above consent.