Why Manchester needs consent classes

On Tuesday morning Clare College, Cambridge held a compulsory consent lecture to which not a single fresher turned up. A week earlier, students in York staged a mass walkout at the university’s first ever sexual consent class, claiming it was “patronising”, with one student stating “if students really need lessons in how to say yes or no then they should not be at university”.

However, a survey held by The Telegraph last year found that one in three female students in the UK have been sexually assaulted or abused on campus. It also showed that half of female undergraduates know somebody who has been sexually assaulted in some form or another, ranging from groping to rape.

When The Tab spoke to Greater Manchester Police about sexual assault, initially in an effort to increase police patrols and protect students from it, we were surprised to be told over 50 per cent of sexual assaults in Manchester are perpetrated by someone the victim knows. Essentially this means one out of six girls have been sexually assaulted by someone they know, including their fellow classmates.

I myself am part of that statistic. Last year I went for a drink with a guy I’d known for a while and we ended up back at his house, in his bedroom watching a film. Barely five minutes into the opening credits he made his move and, despite multiple declines of his advances, he wouldn’t take no for an answer and before I knew it, I was lying on my back being penetrated and wondering how the hell I’d ended up in that situation.

When the first invitations to sexual consent workshops at the University of Warwick were sent out last year, student George Lawson publicly rejected the idea arguing that he “didn’t look like a rapist”. Neither did this guy. He has a great family and loads of friends. I bet none of them would imagine him forcing himself upon a girl but he did.

On another occasion, I’d gotten incredibly drunk on a night out. I woke up the next morning naked and alone in my bed, completely unaware that I’d had sex until I found a used condom on the floor by my bedside table. I had clearly been in no fit state to consent to sex, yet that didn’t seem to matter. He is now a graduate, yet clearly was not educated enough to stop himself from taking advantage of a vulnerable girl.

And, in another incredibly concerning situation, a friend of mine went home with a boy after a night out and they’d started engaging in consensual sex, yet part way through she changed her mind. She informed him of her desire to stop but he continued to penetrate her, saying it was “just banter”. She finally had to result to physically hitting him to stop him from continuing to technically rape her. The same boy has been overheard joking about raping girls if they wouldn’t consent to having sex with him.

I have no doubt that for some students consent classes aren’t needed, however the statistics are undeniable. The skewed ideas of what is classed as acceptable behaviour by supposedly educated young men indicate that they are a completely necessary part of education. Anything other than a solid yes is a no and, until the entire student population learns that, those of us with respect for the people around us will just have to take one for the team and attend also.