Problematizing Consent Campaigns in the #METOO Era

The increasing prevalence of campus sexual assault begs the question of whether consent campaigns, and interventions that preceded them, may be effectively paying lip service to this issue rather that creating meaningful reform. In this paper, we focus on poster campaigns that promote consent as a solution to campus sexual assault. We begin by reviewing the various definitions and critiques of consent. Our sample of 194 posters was obtained through Google and Pinterest searches on various search terms (e.g. “university consent sexual.”) Using Willig’s (2013) 6 Stages of Discourse Analysis that leads the researcher through discursive constructions, positioning, discourses, subjectivities, action orientations, and practices, we discuss themes and discourses around the idea that consent is simple; that women are to be strong sexual agents; that sex requires a conversation; and that onlookers must be responsible citizens. The first three of these discourses reveal a neoliberal perspective of individual choice that can lead to self-blame, letting universities off the hook. Our analysis invokes Foucault’s thoughts on prisons which, in an endless state of reforming, maintain the status quo. We argue that consent is a minimal ethical requirement and mutuality may be a better guide to having ethical sex.