Rebecca Moore defends the use of gentle humour in a college’s newsletter about the serious subject of sexual consent

Another academic year, another scandal. This time, there has been an apparent mockery made of sexual consent workshops.

These workshops, attendance at which is compulsory for freshers at certain Oxford colleges, are for the purpose of teaching students about – yes, you’ve guessed it – consent.

Specifically, how to make sure you acquire it before jumping into bed with somebody .

Does awareness around sexual consent need to be made? Unfortunately, yes. Every year there are numerous assaults at universities nationwide. Are the workshops the way to raise awareness? Who knows?

Time will – hopefully – tell in the affirmative.

But the issue itself is ripe for controversy.

Over the past week, Christ Church College has been pulled over the coals, for “mocking” the issue.

A newsletter sent to freshers introduced the workshops like this: “Consent is a thing now. Apparently it wasn’t always (see Ancient Rome) but now it is.

“In a somewhat pleasant irony, you must attend, whether you consent to or not. Fear not, the atmosphere will be cordial and there will be delicious nibbles.”

Before the cyber ink was barely dry, the College had immediately apologised, declaring the whole affair to be inappropriate. However, there was nothing wrong in what was written in that newsletter.

It pointed out that the concept of consent (the fact that there is a need to talk about it) is a “thing” in a way it never has been before. That’s true and only serves to emphasise the necessity for its discussion now. It also pointed out – correctly – that it is pretty ironic that it doesn’t matter whether a student consents to the consent workshop, they have to attend due to it being compulsory. Which is mildly amusing, regardless of the subject matter.

The only problem was that read in a certain way – and from a very serious perspective – the piece’s tone could be interpreted as tearing a strip from the workshops, rather than tearing a strip off the would-be perpetrators of sexual assaults. I seriously don’t believe the writer of that newsletter meant to make light of these issues. It was a stab at lightening up a somewhat sombre and awkward subject.

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