We’ve already seen it across the UK – and from September, sexual consent workshops will be compulsory for new Trinity students from September.
Students based in Fresher accommodation in Trinity Hall will be required to attend the module after it was given the green light by college authorities, and backed overwhelmingly by the Student Union.
Shane Rice, head of the committee responsible for student welfare in Rathmines, told TheJournal.ie that the move is to:
“dispel the myths around sexual assault and start a conversation about what consent is”.
And a quick look at the numbers would suggest that this really is something that needs to happen.
According to a report in Trinity News last year, a quarter of female students at the college said they had experienced a non-consensual sexual encounter – while a staggering one in three had received ‘unwanted sexual contact’ while staying in TCD or in a college-related social setting.
In the UK, student George Davis mounted a stand against similar workshops in Warwick University – but his infamous quote ‘This is not what a rapist looks like’ was widely slammed online and within the university itself.
And the backlash here looks to be heating up already, with one commenter on TheJournal.ie article saying:
And they want to roll it out for every student. I’m tempted to enrol in any old course at Trinity just to refuse to attend this nonsense
And another, taking the common if baffling view that such courses “assume guilt” among males:
No one is saying do nothing about such behaviour. Just don’t treat us all as guilty and lecture us like children.
Sigh.
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