“When she said she wanted to go lie down and wanted me to come and snuggle with her, what was I supposed to think? Of course I thought she wanted to have sex,” reads a Year 9 student to the class.
The student is reading a fictional scenario from the program, which is being implemented across Victorian schools following a recommendation from the Royal Commission into Family Violence. The program aims to build a culture of respect and equality and part of the curriculum specifically teaches about consent.
Insight visited Maryborough Education Centre and observed Year 9 and 10 students exploring what consent means through the fictional teenage couple, ‘Sam’ and ‘Zoe’. The couple attend a party and after they both have some beer Zoe starts to feel tired and goes to lie down, eventually they have sex.
The class hears two different perspectives, from ‘Zoe’: “The next thing I know he’s all over me, forcing me to have sex with him.”
And from 'Sam': “She did grumble a bit when I started to undress her but I just thought she wanted to be persuaded.”
The students are then asked to discuss both experiences and the issues arising from the interaction. “He might have just thought that she wanted it even though she didn’t say yes, but she didn’t really try to stop it either,” a student says.
Another student offers his view: “I reckon they’re both correct stories, except it is just seen from a different view on both sides.”
The issue of consent has been making headlines across the country, following an that revealed 6 per cent of university students were sexually assaulted in 2015/16. The report recommended universities provide students with education about consent and respectful relationships.
According to high school teacher, Alicia Cassidy, the Respectful Relationships program has provided the opportunity to explicitly explore consent. She says: “Previously we have only talked about sex education in regards to reproductive systems, contraception and STI’s. We haven’t really focused too much on the relationship aspect. The kids have really taken it on board and listened really well.”
Previously we have only talked about sex education in regards to reproductive systems, contraception and STI’s. We haven’t really focused too much on the relationship aspect. The kids have really taken it on board and listened really well.
The need for better education on sex and consent was expressed by young people on an , where some admitted their sex education came via pornography.
On learning about sex and consent, one young woman said: “You do have to go to something like pornography, you go to something like the internet. We don’t have these conversations in a sexual education context. We don't talk about if something happens, if suddenly something changes when you're having an interaction, what do you do?”
Insight host Jenny Brockie asked the audience: “What happens if you decide halfway through sex that you don’t want to do it?”
Lauren says she feels pressure to keep going out of guilt: “The first thing that will pop into my head is like, I’ll feel bad, I feel like I’m annoying him because he’s got this huge erection and what’s he going to do now, get blue balls?”
Jean Paul offers a male perspective: “But I think a lot of people are trained from a very young age, through pornography that women don't ever say no once they say yes.”
On , young people dish the dirt on sex and sexting - and how they navigate consent around both issues. Watch the full episode online here:
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