User:Williamsdev/sandbox

Consent to sexual activity The word “consent comes from the latin words Con meaning together and sentire meaning feeling”. Sexual consent is defined as the “voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity” by sex educators at Consented. Sexual consent must be affirmative consent in Canadian Law: under the Criminal Code of Canada (Section 273.1), the law states “consent means…the voluntary agreement of the complainant to engage in sexual activity” without abuse or exploitation of “trust, power or authority”, coercion or threats. Consent can also be revoked at any moment.[7] Sexual consent plays an important role in defining what sexual assault is, since sexual activity without consent by all parties is considered rape. Children or minors below a certain age, the "age of consent", in said country, are deemed not to be able to give valid consent as understood in law to sexual acts in most jurisdictions. Academic author, Pineau has argued that we must move towards a more communicative model of sexuality so that consent becomes more explicit and clear, objective and layered, with a more comprehensive model than “no means no” or “yes means yes”. [9] Within literature, definitions surrounding consent and how it should be communicated have been contradictory, limited or without consensus [6]. This is why initiatives in sex education programs are working towards including and foregrounding topics of and discussions of sexual consent, in primary, high school and college Sex Ed curricula. In the UK, the Personal Social Health and Economic Education Association (PSHEA) is working to produce and introduce Sex Ed lesson plans in British schools that include lessons on “consensual sexual relationships,” “the meaning and importance of consent” as well as “rape myths”. In U.S., California-Berkeley University has implemented affirmative and continual consent in education and in the school’s policies. In Canada, the Ontario government has introduced a revised Sex Ed curriculum including new discussions of sex and affirmative consent, healthy relationships and communication. Newer and developing models of sexual consent are “yes means yes” and affirmative such as Hall’s definition: "the voluntary approval of what is done or proposed by another; permission; agreement in opinion or sentiment."[7] Hickman and Muehlenhard state that consent should be "free verbal or nonverbal communication of a feeling of willingness' to engage in sexual activity."[8] Affirmative consent may still be limited since the underlying, individual circumstances surrounding the consent cannot always be acknowledged in the “yes means yes”, or in the “no means no”, model.