A non-profit group has created amusing PSAs that feature an animated penis, vagina, boob and buttocks talking about consent. The video was released in the hopes that millennials will understand that "No" means no and that rape culture must not be tolerated.
Sexual consent shouldn't be complicated and ideally, there are only two ways to go about it - it's either a yes or a no. But it turns out that people, especially young adults, are still confused about the matter, as some interpret signals to mean that the other person might be asking for it.
Project Consent has been campaigning against rape culture since its formation in 2014. The group was founded to raise awareness and educate the public as an "advocate of a future in which rape culture no longer exists to belittle survivors and liken assault to a joke." The group does this through stories, whether written or on video, which are posted on its website anonymously or with an individual's name.
The group's latest effort is releasing a series of short videos to explain the simplicity of consent using animated body parts. "We wanted to talk about consent frankly, and we felt like it was unnecessary to use symbolic replacements in these discussions," said Project Consent founder Sara Li about the new campaign. "We didn't want to use metaphors or analogies or dance around the subject, because ultimately, that's counterproductive." Li also describes the videos as "open discussion using a cheeky visual to stimulate talk."
Watch Project Consent's PSAs below.:
"Consent shouldn't be difficult or hard to talk about; we shouldn't need to use tea or anything else to explain what is or isn't inappropriate," Li further said, alluding to another consent video released in 2015 that likened the topic to making tea. "Talking about consent, or sex or anything under that umbrella, shouldn't be taboo. Hopefully the nature of these videos has opened up an important dialogue."
Toronto ad agency Juniper Park created these short clips for Project Consent. "The goal of the campaign is to get people to see consent differently," said Terry Drummond from the ad agency. "It isn't a messy and complicated issue. Again, it's simple. If it's not yes, it's no."
