Rebecca+S’s+2017+OpEd+Article

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==== When I walked into my health class, the people who knew about it were already elbowing each other and grinning. “Extra credit points to whoever can list them on the board without laughing,” announced my health teacher (who’s going to be anonymous for this article’s sake). "Try to keep it serious." A girl volunteered and burst out into a fit of giggles in the middle of writing “penis”. ====

==== That was how sex ed went. We addressed STDs, teen pregnancy, and most other biological aspects. Nurse Mary satisfied eccentric curiosities. Topics of rape, consent, or refusal were hardly even touched. All the curriculum attempted to do was have of us name anatomical parts with some seriousness. It failed miserably. ====

==== SEX ED SHOULD NOT BE THAT WAY. Schools should talk extensively about the importance of consent, and the seriousness of ignoring someone's refusal. If people knew the ramifications of the crimes they committed, things might be different. It would, in fact, reduce rape culture. I’m not thinking about being snatched off the streets by predators and raped in a dark back alley, although there’s that too. I’m thinking of the rape committed by an ignorant acquaintance ([|__7/10__] rapists are someone known to the victim) who thinks he/she can take their liberties. That kind of everyday sexual assault that generally goes unnoticed and unmentioned. ====

==== People must be TAUGHT that silence is not consent. A “yes” heard from the mouth? That is consent. A "no" verbally spoken? That is refusal. Taking consent and refusal out of the gray area and clearly defining it means people can no longer hide behind a shield of ignorance. Furthermore, girls need to know that saying "yes" doesn't compromise them as morally promiscuous. Anybody who condemns them as such is attempts to trap them in strict gender roles, which 1) they don't have the right to, 2) belongs to out-dated, pre-19th century thinking. Guys need to know being sexually assaulted doesn't mean their " demasculinization" and being sexually aggressive does not make them //more// "masculine".====

It’s ridiculous, unfathomable even, that schools should neglect to teach students that they have the inviolable right to refuse and the obligation to ask.
==== Although consent has been stressed more recently, it's still not enough. Even compared to nonexistence, it's weak at best. Foothill uses the comparison of [|__British cup of tea to consensual sex__], which is too feeble and lighthearted. It trivializes rape by comparing sexual advances with making tea and undermines the importance of consent. No, hearing about rape does not damage our sensitive teenage ears or darken our pure white souls. Yes, every single girl and boy MUST understand what entails consent and refusal. ====

==== Sexual education in schools needs to be bolstered. We must do ourselves justice by characterizing rape as it is: a violation of human rights, the deprivation of self-worth and dignity. The first step towards doing that? Understanding and acknowledging the concepts of consent and refusal. ====