Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) today launched a video as part of its ongoing campaign to increase awareness about and promote sexual consent among students.
The launch was opened by TCDSU Welfare Officer Conor Clancy, with a talk by best-selling author of the 2015 novel Asking For It and Trinity alumna, Louise O’Neill, speaking at the event.
The short video, filmed primarily at the Pavilion Bar, was co-directed by Bogdan Hrechka and TCDSU Communications and Marketing Officer, Aifric Ní Chríodáin. Hrechka and Ní Chríodáin also co-wrote the script with the union’s Gender Equality Officer, Louise Mulrennan.
Clancy spoke of his hope that the video would start a “conversation” on consent among students. He emphasised that “consent is part of everyone’s life”, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, and told of how he wanted to “spread a positive message that hasn’t been heard in the past”.
He went on to praise current progress made by Trinity students on the issue. Last year, results of a survey carried out by TCDSU showed that 25.2 per cent of women studying at Trinity, as well as 4.5 per cent of male students, had been the victim of a “non-consensual sexual experience”, marking more or less a starting point for increased dialogue on the issue.
The campaign video also builds on the momentum of motion at TCDSU council last month, which mandated the union to introduce “mandatory” sexual consent workshops to students in Trinity Hall from September. The motion was approved resoundingly by voting council members, but was the focus criticism from Irish Times journalist Fionola Meredith, something referred to by Clancy at the launch today.
Both Clancy and O’Neill were critical of Ireland’s current approach to consent education. “Our education system around gender and identity and sexuality is incredibly lacking”, said Clancy, adding: “it’s not something we should have to be standing here talking about, but it is”.
Speaking to the audience, O’Neill told of her experiences in school amid a poor consent education system. “When you don’t talk about consent and you don’t explain to young men and young women what rape is, it can get very confusing”. She told of how even though raped at nineteen, it was not until opening up about her experience in her mid-twenties that she realised her experience was non-consensual.
She went on: “I’m really thrilled to be a part of this [campaign] because since writing my book I get emails every day from women who want to share their stories of sexual assault. It can feel really overwhelming and distressing, and it has begun to feel like it an epidemic – it seems like every woman has a story to share. That’s why i don’t understand the reluctance to tackle this issue”.
Speaking after the launch to The University Times, Mulrennan, said: “Consent should be affirmative, positive, and it should be ongoing”.
Referencing the idea that “sex is optional, consent is mandatory”, she added that “I really think that grasps the entire concept of it. We really want everyone to go into this campaign into positivity”
The video will be shared publicly online by TCDSU at 6 pm tonight
