Abstract
Introduction
Advocates of affirmative consent argue that such policies can change sexual mores rooted in entitled masculinity while shifting the burden of preventing sexual assault from women to men. Yet there is little research to date on the implementation of affirmative consent or analysis of whether the policy’s demands are feasible in contemporary college sexual culture. We compare undergraduate students’ descriptions of sexual norms and behaviors on one college campus to the norms and logics implicit in the school’s affirmative consent sexual assault policy.
Methods
Thirty-three undergraduate students from a mid-sized public university participated in one of eight same or mixed-gender, semi-structured focus groups in 2018.
Results
Affirmative consent assumes that sexual situations are a clearly definable category of activity, whereas student accounts suggest that sexual and non-sexual situations bleed into one another, making it difficult for students to establish consent via clear communication before sexual encounters begin. Students convey sexual interest through an accumulation of gestures exchanged over time, leading us to propose a cumulative model of consent. Students also report deliberately using ambiguous communication in sexual situations because it confers several social benefits, despite the risk of miscommunication.
Conclusions
Student sexual behavior and affirmative consent policies are at odds because they are logically incompatible, and because student sexual culture is influenced by factors other than rape avoidance.
Policy Implications
Policies intended to curb sexual assault on campus should be written with normative student sexual behavior in mind and should offer clear guidelines for implementation in the real world.
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Appendix: Interview guide
Appendix: Interview guide
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1.
How do people hook up? Probe if silent: What are some common scenarios that lead to a hookup?
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2.
What do people do to communicate to others that they want to hook up? Explore: (body presentation, eye contact, gestures, social media (texts, likes, pokes, emojis), words)
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a.
How direct does somebody have to be in their communication to successfully convey to others that they are interested in hooking up?
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b.
What barriers can get in the way of somebody communicating the message to others that they are interested in a hookup?
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c.
What sort of miscommunications occur when a person is attempting to communicate interest in a hookup?
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a.
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3.
How do people find out if others are interested in hooking up with them? Explore: body presentation, eye contact, gestures, social media (texts, likes, pokes, emojis), words
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4.
What do people do if they think others are interested in hooking up with them, but they are NOT interested in hooking up?
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5.
What do people do if they think others are interested in hooking up with them, and they ARE interested in hooking up?
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6.
How can people be sure that all parties to a hookup are okay with what is happening?
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a.
What barriers can get in the way of making sure all parties in a hookup situation are okay?
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a.
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7.
How does alcohol factor in, if at all, into hookups?
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a.
How does alcohol factor in, if at all, into making sure all parties in a hookup situation are okay?
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b.
How does pregaming factor in, if at all, into hookups? Why do people pregame? Why do they choose not to pregame?
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a.
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8.
What is sexual consent?
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a.
How does this definition compare to what actually happens in hookups?
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b.
If they are different, why?
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a.
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9.
What is affirmative consent?
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a.
How does this definition compare to what actually happens in hookups?
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b.
Is affirmative consent different than consent? If so, how?
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a.
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10.
How did you learn about consent? Explore: from whom? Where? How old were you? What was the setting? What was the content (verbal/nonverbal)?
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a.
Do you think this information was effective? Why or why not?
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a.
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Hardesty, M., Young, S.R., McKinnon, A.M. et al. Indiscrete: How Typical College Student Sexual Behavior Troubles Affirmative Consent’s Demand for Clear Communication. Sex Res Soc Policy 19, 1114–1129 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-021-00611-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-021-00611-9