Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

Dear colleagues;

I was able to see the short film on consent -- clever but ultimately 
unhelpful as a mockery of the value of autonomy because it promotes the 
notion that obtaining consent is unromantic --

I will use it as a teaching tool because it's a fun way of teasing out 
students' ideas of what consent is and why it matters -- I do two days 
on consent with my law students - and they invariably lapse into a 
discussion about the criminal law as as "sexual regulation" rather than 
a black and white tool designed to promote autonomy.

It's also entirely inappropriate as a film that sends the wrong message 
about who bears the burden.  Irrespective of gender, the aggressor 
always bears the burden of obtaining permission.  Anything short of 
black and white rules translates to "a little bit of harm is ok".

I wish there could be a film that illustrates the simplicity of the 
idea that "my right to swing my fist ends before it hits you in the 
nose" as applied to sexual parts.

Wendy Murphy
New England School of Law