Sexual Consent in the Media: from Screen to Silence

In my project I will be discussing the research I have done on sexual consent in the media. My research includes how consent is defined by academic resources, but also how the media misinterprets consent, and how the media negatively influence sexual consent.

The media sources for my project includes advertisements, which represent the ideas of sexual consent in the media, and why it is damaging. The beginning of my presentation will include how people define consent, I will find as many definitions of consent that I can. The next part of my presentation will include what the media says about consent. I have found product advertisements from the internet that show My advertisements that include images of women being objectified and show women being objectified, and do not have consent. When images like this are shown for advertisements, it normalizes gender indifferences and sexual assault.

Sexual assault in the media creates and normalizes sexual assault, when in reality it is a serious issue. Educating on sexual consent is what I believe needs to be done, in order to understand sexual assault. Consent is not talked about as much as I think it should be, and I want to define consent instead of define sexual assault.

By educating on policies and statistics of sexual assault and sexual consent, I am able to use media representations to enforce that something needs to be done about this issue. Most of the images I have include women being objectified to sell products, and women being used for sex. Rape culture in our society calls for education of consent and policies to protect victims.

The victim is often seen as the problem, and educating the community on why these images in the media are damaging is the first step in making consent an important part of the sexual assault prevention agenda society should have.