With purpose and passion, Kaity draws attention to the failings of current educational and social systems that give rise to assaults, and the activists tackling this by bringing consent education to the forefront in Australia.

Content warning: This article contains mentions of sexual assault.

I remember feelings of dread as I walked down the corridors to class at the start of a new school year. I always grew taller over the summer holidays and knew that my school skirt would be too short to go unnoticed by teachers. On one hand it seemed silly that something so trivial used to occupy my time and energy. On the other, there is the sad realisation that the people and systems tasked with ensuring our safety were also responsible for fostering a culture that has made my friends and I vulnerable on many occasions throughout our lives.

This issue extends far beyond having to have a skirt which touched the floor when I kneeled so that male teachers wouldn't feel ‘uncomfortable’—a common euphemism for the sexualisation of schoolgirls. From a young age, girls are told by authorities to adhere to dress codes, restrict their activities, and stay at home for their safety, with few attempts to understand why men are violent towards women, or how to change their behaviour. This teaches young girls to internalise the archaic idea that their clothing or demeanour is responsible for men’s behaviour and directly contributes to rape culture by making them less likely to recognise and report instances of sexual assault.

At the same time, our patriarchal cultures teaches young boys that as a man they gain power and status through physical intimidation, wealth, and sexual conquests; developing a widespread culture of toxic masculinity. Critiques of such behaviours are often misunderstood as an attack on men. However, the concept of toxic masculinity is not to condemn men or male attributes, but rather to recognise the toxic effects conforming to traditional gendered norms has on men and the whole of society. Encouraging boys to suppress their emotions from a young age only limits their ability to form intimate human connections, perpetuating the gendered violence evident in society. 

From private schools to parliament, horror stories of sexual assault have exposed the widespread consequences of the rape culture which exists across Australia. In 2021, courageous young people speaking out about their sexual assault experiences fomented a momentous movement to address these longstanding experiences of gender issues and violence in the country. Among them was student turned activist Chanel Contos who received an outpouring of responses to her Instagram request for young Australians to share their sexual assault experiences. Spurred on by this overwhelming response, she launched a petition in February 2021 calling for more holistic and earlier consent education in Australia and founded teachusconsent.com, a platform where people can share anonymous testimonials of sexual assault. Over 44,500 Australians have signed the petition and more than 6,700 people have shared their stories of sexual assault on the website since it was launched.

A large proportion of the testimonies include students from private schools in Sydney, indicating that rape culture begins, and must be addressed, at a young age. Chanel’s campaign advocates that the best way to create a long term, cultural shift in a community is through improved education. Inadequate sexual consent education has given young people a deep misunderstanding of gendered stereotypes and what constitutes as sexual violence, coercion, and power imbalance. A study of Australians’ understanding of consent revealed that only 26% of female sexual assault victim-survivors realised immediately that they had been assaulted. Many victims and perpetrators admit it took a conversation with an educated friend or seeing situations play out on television to recognise what had happened to them, or what they had done, was sexual assault. Students have the right to understand what consensual sexual activity looks like so they can develop the knowledge and autonomy to speak about their assaults. More so, the campaign for earlier consent education aims to reduce the number of sexual assaults occurring in the first place. 

On 16 February 2022, exactly one year since the petition launched, ministers of education from around Australia unanimously supported Chanel’s proposal and committed to mandating holistic and age-appropriate consent education in all Australian schools. The new comprehensive consent education curriculum, which will emphasise better understanding of gendered stereotypes, is set to be implemented by 2023 and symbolises a momentous step forward in the fight to demolish rape culture in Australia.

Acknowledgements:

Chanel Contos, Founder and CEO of Teach Us Consent - @chanelc 

Matthew Hubner, Chief of Marketing for Teach Us Consent @teachusconsent