This text references grooming, sexual assault, and image-based abuse.
It’s by no means been extra essential that we now have conversations round consent – an idea that underpins our freedom, sense of self, security and sexuality.
Speaking about it might probably save and alter lives, particularly when this results in legal guidelines and social attitudes reflecting the significance of anybody particular person’s sexual consent. These shifts in perspective and laws might be set in movement by many various components. Even what we watch on the telly.
Sure TV reveals, movies and books are exploring these points proper now, together with BBC collection The Jetty, which can seem at first look to be your common British police drama, however truly explores consent inside the context of grooming and intimate image-based abuse.
These points must be represented on display screen – to start out conversations and encourage campaigns for change. It’s a problem on many individuals’s minds, in spite of everything. GLAMOUR’s very personal consent survey discovered that 91% of girls assume that deepfakes – AKA sexually specific synthetic photographs – are a hazard to ladies.
And following the information from the King’s Speech that spiking will develop into a selected felony offence – which is able to reportedly assist the police to raised reply to instances – we have to preserve speaking about consent, and the numerous different methods it manifests and might be abused.
It impacts all of us and {our relationships} with our our bodies, sexuality and psychological well being – notably younger ladies. In a research, 71% of girls reported being sexually harassed in public, and 97% between the ages of 18-24 reported being harassed or assaulted.
Conversations across the subject are – and have to be – far-reaching and nuanced. They need to cowl sexual harassment and assault in private and non-private, as a lot as they need to cowl image-based abuse, an equally essential violation of consent.
The Jetty protagonist Ember (Jenna Coleman)’s teenage daughter Hannah (Bridgerton‘s Ruby Stokes) experiences her nudes being leaked by a associate – resulting in native males sharing the pictures amongst themselves, with out her consent. Ember feels powerless to consolation or assist her – and we’re proven how little might be accomplished (presently) to undo the sharing of such photographs, and the issues round prosecuting somebody who shared these photographs.
This occasion is a really actual drawback, and deserves illustration on display screen. A current report discovered {that a} third (33%) of UK individuals reported both figuring out somebody who has skilled intimate picture abuse or have skilled it themselves (7%).
Ben Blackall
