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What Even is Consent? An Investigation Into Educational and Media Presentations of Consent

Our work was focused on understanding why, after years of messaging, consent remains an ambiguous topic, and there are far too many rapes, sexual assaults, and coercive encounters. We believed that messaging received from media and social norms around sex

Sex Can Wait: An Abstinence Education Curriculum for Middle School

Example of: Mixed Messaging

Learning Activity: Saying No

  • "Again stress that sexual feelings are normal, but that as thinking human beings we can decide what we want to do with them. Ask students if the person in the video scene had clearly decided on her or his personal limits for physical intimacy. Note that to try to do so under pressure from the other person was tough. The best thing this person could do now would be to stop what's happening and give herself or himself time to get clear on her or his personal limits."
  • "Discuss how body language (tone of voice, gestures, look on your face, the way you sit or stand) plays an important role when you want to make a clear and assertive statement."