Affirmative Consent Essay

Consent applies to sexual relations and is often referred to as affirmative consent, or the conscious and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity. When you are engaging in sexual activity consent should be verbally communicated every time. Sex without affirmative consent is sexual assault or rape. Affirmative consent varies with every person and even varies depending on what person you ask, but in general I think that affirmative consent is the verbal agreement to have sex with another person. Some people are worried about the extent of what is and isn't affirmative consent, some people believe that more aggressive efforts should be taken. In an article called What ‘Affirmative Consent’ Actually Means they bring up a very good point saying, “The current societal script on sex assumes that passivity and silence — essentially, the “lack of a no” — means it’s okay to proceed,”( Culp-Ressler, 2016) I think that this is the exact opposite of what should be known, instead of nothing meaning okay, not saying yes, should automatically be a no. On Black Hills State University’s website they have a page about affirmative consent that brings up the fact, “Verbal and Clear. Your sexual partner must be given every opportunity to communicate his/her wishes.No means no, and when in doubt, ask first,” which is …show more content…
The definition of consent is that both people in a sexual encounter must agree to it, and either person may decide at any time that they no longer consent and want to stop the activity. Non Consensual sex means that someone doesn't want it to happen. Even if not said it is the other person in the situation to find out whether or not they want to or not. In laymen terms consensual sex means that everyone in the activity wants to be doing that activity and non consensual sex means that someone in the activity doesn’t want to be in the