[Special Guest] Supporting Survivors Part 2: Life Long Term

[Ben-RO]

That leads me on to another question @Kim-SARC what are the important things that people should know about consent? 

Can someone consent if they've been drinking? 

[Serena_Yi]

Love this video! The concept makes it easy for everyone to understand 

[Moya]

Hi @Serena_Yi

That's generally true but some "STIs" are actually normal infections that are transferred to another place. A good example of this is oral herpes or cold sores. A lot of people have cold sores and if that person has oral sex with someone for the first time, the other person may catch genital herpes but not of the genital herpes variety. Similarly, if a person has warts on their hands, they may transfer these warts to the other persons genitals.

BUT the typical STIs such as gonorrhoea and Chlamydia will not be transferred if both people have not had sex before. 

[Kim-SARC]

@Ben-ROI just love the 'cup of tea' analogy!! @Jacinta-SARC is posting it for me... About drinking and whether someone can consent it depends on how much and how affected the person is? If someone is really drunk or totally off their head then they cannot consent. They just can't.  Same if they are asleep! 

[j95]

What if they have both been drinking?

[Ben-RO]

Thank you for sharing that @Kim-SARC 

I have another question, for the group this time: 

Attitudes held in our society around sexual assault can have a big and unfortunately pretty negative impact on the experiences of a lot of survivors. How do you think the way we talk about and deal with sexual assault at a wider level could change for the better?

[Moya]

@Ben-RO

Other important thing about consent is that it is fluid. One moment a person could be consenting but they can then change their mind and that needs to be respected.

[Kim-SARC]

@j95 This is a common question we get asked... and people do have sex when they have been drinking but what is too drunk? It may seem unfair, but even when you are drinking you have to be responsible for your behaviour and knowing what the other person wants, and if you don't know or are not sure...don't do it. Just like when you drive a car drunk, you get charged...the same goes for sexually assault, being drunk is not a justification.

[Chessca_H]

How do you think the way we talk about and deal with sexual assault at a wider level could change for the better?

In soooooooo many ways lol

The main thing is if it were more common for people to not participate in victim blaming. Even when someone says they believe a survivor, but might then question exactly how bad it could have been or how much they 'deserved it' based on how they were dressed, how much they had to drink, how well they knew their abuser etc. Another big thing personally is how often graphic depictions of sexual assault are found in media, I hate having to worry about whether it's going to come up when I watch a tv show or movie when there's really no reason to do it outside of shock value.