Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Monday Mini: Enthusiastic Consent
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and he's definitely never
- 0:07Speaker 1: told you production of iHeart Radio. Yes, and today's Monday
- 0:19Speaker 1: many is Samantha's gonna go on another rant because she
- 0:22Speaker 1: watched something on TikTok and now has to go on
- 0:24Speaker 1: another rant. Uh, what do you call it? Samantha's TikTok talk?
- 0:29Speaker 1: There is? And by the way, I don't post. I'm
- 0:36Speaker 1: just the that person that looks and likes and moves
- 0:39Speaker 1: on typically. Yeah, So with TikTok, and especially if we're
- 0:43Speaker 1: talking about content, we are going to talk about a
- 0:46Speaker 1: little bit, not too in depth about specific events, but
- 0:49Speaker 1: definitely mentioned sexual assault, possible a rape, all of those things.
- 0:54Speaker 1: So if that is something that you are not willing
- 0:56Speaker 1: to even think about, or maybe you're just tired of
- 0:58Speaker 1: that drama because there's a lot of it, you might
- 1:00Speaker 1: want to pass on. But you know, here we go.
- 1:04Speaker 1: There's a lot to take in from so many people.
- 1:06Speaker 1: But if you're on the same side of TikTok as
- 1:09Speaker 1: i am, then you might have been seeing a lot
- 1:11Speaker 1: of drama recently, specifically with two creators who were supposed
- 1:14Speaker 1: to be activist creators, and it got it got ugly,
- 1:19Speaker 1: like people started airing out some things. But one of
- 1:21Speaker 1: the big things that came out in this conversation while
- 1:24Speaker 1: two big things, but we're not gonna We're only gonna
- 1:26Speaker 1: talk one of them. It's about consent. So very briefly,
- 1:32Speaker 1: essentially was two people met up. One person communicated that
- 1:35Speaker 1: they wanted to be a uh monogamous, the other one
- 1:38Speaker 1: was like, well and then never said anything. They met up,
- 1:42Speaker 1: had sex, found out that the other person wasn't being
- 1:45Speaker 1: monogamous and probably was meeting up with other people. The
- 1:50Speaker 1: other person who wanted to be monogamous, felt betrayed and
- 1:53Speaker 1: went on this thing. I was very upset and and
- 1:58Speaker 1: never fully says anything about being assaulted, but just absolutely
- 2:02Speaker 1: the fact that they were crushed and really felt like
- 2:05Speaker 1: this type of manipulation was paramount to a bigger betrayal
- 2:10Speaker 1: and that had they known, they wouldn't have been as
- 2:14Speaker 1: casual or all this. So it kind of came through
- 2:18Speaker 1: with us everybody talking about consent, uh and what does
- 2:22Speaker 1: consent mean? And and you and I did a couple
- 2:25Speaker 1: of episodes because of books. One was the book Ace
- 2:28Speaker 1: What Sexuality Reveals About Desire, Society and the Meaning of
- 2:31Speaker 1: Sex by Angela Chen which we talked about consent and
- 2:34Speaker 1: a lot of times because of that whole back and forth,
- 2:37Speaker 1: like a sexual people, what does that mean? How do
- 2:40Speaker 1: they communicate about sexual desires with partners and how does
- 2:43Speaker 1: that need to be seen? So we really wouldn't in
- 2:45Speaker 1: depth on that one. But also the book on dot
- 2:48Speaker 1: com and though we also talked about that, and I
- 2:51Speaker 1: know you talked a lot about it through fained fiction portals,
- 2:54Speaker 1: and I think it's a really good conversation to come
- 2:56Speaker 1: back on because there was also a comment when we
- 2:59Speaker 1: talked about Richarton. We had Holly Fry come on and
- 3:02Speaker 1: we were talking about her shows with Shawndaland and really
- 3:06Speaker 1: loving Briton, and we got to comment saying that I
- 3:10Speaker 1: cannot believe you would rave about the show. I couldn't
- 3:14Speaker 1: listen to anymore after you said that because it advocates
- 3:17Speaker 1: for the rape of men. And I really had a
- 3:20Speaker 1: moment of trying to figure out what I was, like
- 3:22Speaker 1: what I didn't know what our listener meant and you
- 3:24Speaker 1: had to explain me like, well, there is that scene
- 3:26Speaker 1: where the female protagonist, Daphne felt betrayed because she didn't
- 3:32Speaker 1: understand the birds and the bees or how sex and
- 3:35Speaker 1: how reproduction work, because no one explained it to her,
- 3:38Speaker 1: and we talked about like, wow, yeah, really if you
- 3:41Speaker 1: don't know, this is a big mystery, and then finding
- 3:44Speaker 1: it out accidentally and realizing when her husband at the
- 3:49Speaker 1: time has said he couldn't have children, that he didn't
- 3:52Speaker 1: want children, and she felt misled, and so, in order
- 3:55Speaker 1: to test her theory because they don't communicate, no one
- 3:58Speaker 1: seems to communicated any show ever, she tweks him by
- 4:03Speaker 1: having him inside her essentially so and and that was
- 4:08Speaker 1: what the listener was talking about. And I had to think.
- 4:11Speaker 1: I was like, wait what because I really wanted to
- 4:13Speaker 1: be immediately dispensive. I was like, that's a mistogynist in me.
- 4:18Speaker 1: And I was like, well, yeah, I guess. I guess.
- 4:21Speaker 1: This is that whole conversation of consent once again, what
- 4:25Speaker 1: where is the line? And we talk about consent and
- 4:28Speaker 1: sexual assault and even again, still till this day, people
- 4:32Speaker 1: truly don't understand that when someone says no but then
- 4:39Speaker 1: allows sex to happen, that's not consent. To the point
- 4:44Speaker 1: even the victim does not understand that that's not consent.
- 4:49Speaker 1: Um having the fact like people fighting them off, fighting
- 4:51Speaker 1: them off, fighting them off, and then just giving up
- 4:53Speaker 1: because they're tired. That is assault by the law definition. Now,
- 4:57Speaker 1: when we get in and do conversation about being talked into,
- 5:01Speaker 1: meaning they never really say no, but they're not enthusiastic,
- 5:05Speaker 1: they're not they're just again, you and I've talked about
- 5:08Speaker 1: this on like invited a person over, kind of changed
- 5:11Speaker 1: my mind, but I felt like I couldn't so I
- 5:13Speaker 1: just went along with it because I felt like I
- 5:14Speaker 1: couldn't communicate that. So where does that line cross? And
- 5:19Speaker 1: this kind of conversation in the same thing, and that
- 5:21Speaker 1: they wanted to be very explicit in Okay, we're having
- 5:25Speaker 1: unprotected sex because I trust that you're being monogamous, and
- 5:30Speaker 1: because I feel like we've had these boundaries and we
- 5:33Speaker 1: are saying we're going to be in a relationship. Okay,
- 5:35Speaker 1: now again one side. There's so many layers to everything.
- 5:39Speaker 1: Of course, because they later I found out that that
- 5:44Speaker 1: was not the case, they felt betrayed absolutely. So there's
- 5:49Speaker 1: that conversation of yeah, okay, let's let's get back to this,
- 5:52Speaker 1: let's get back to this whole conversation. And of course
- 5:56Speaker 1: this also had to do with the bigger conversation of
- 5:59Speaker 1: if they're drunk and passed out. They can't consent if
- 6:03Speaker 1: they're drunk and don't even realize where they are. And
- 6:07Speaker 1: just because they may be giggling and falling about does
- 6:11Speaker 1: not necessarily mean they know what they're doing. And of
- 6:15Speaker 1: course this we hear the whole But what if the
- 6:19Speaker 1: guys just as drunk, what if the you know, it's
- 6:21Speaker 1: just as they don't know either. Okay, sure we can
- 6:26Speaker 1: have that conversation too. There's a lot to have this conversation,
- 6:29Speaker 1: But when it becomes so placed onto women and then
- 6:33Speaker 1: being slush shamed, that's that other conversation of that being
- 6:38Speaker 1: solely seen as a bad person in the scenario is
- 6:40Speaker 1: the slutty woman, which is oftentimes the narrative of like, okay,
- 6:44Speaker 1: let's just let's just have a moment where we all
- 6:47Speaker 1: literally talk about this. And also who is pushing home
- 6:50Speaker 1: and who wasn't pushing home? So there's just a bigger level.
- 6:53Speaker 1: So I wanted to take a minute to come back
- 6:55Speaker 1: to it and also talk about the idea, which again
- 7:00Speaker 1: Angela Chen did a really good job of talking about
- 7:02Speaker 1: enthusiastic consent, the absolute consent, which is that in this
- 7:09Speaker 1: one article, which is with the University of New England
- 7:12Speaker 1: Life article. It says enthusiastic consent is about ensuring that
- 7:17Speaker 1: all parties to sexual acts are enthusiastically consenting to everything
- 7:21Speaker 1: that happens. So that's that big kick everything that happens.
- 7:26Speaker 1: This means you would be participated in sexual acts because
- 7:28Speaker 1: you're excited about it, not because you feel pressured to it.
- 7:32Speaker 1: Enthusiastic consent gives power to each individual to decide if
- 7:36Speaker 1: they want to have sex and how they want to
- 7:39Speaker 1: have it. So I felt like that was so important
- 7:41Speaker 1: because at this point we are lacking so much in
- 7:46Speaker 1: this conversation and because they're so often the level of
- 7:52Speaker 1: this like but it takes away the romance, the spark,
- 7:54Speaker 1: the you know what, no, no. At this point, I
- 7:58Speaker 1: think we need just to start are all over for everyone.
- 8:02Speaker 1: Unless you truly truly know each other and you've got
- 8:05Speaker 1: this conversation being able to communicate down, like truly communicate,
- 8:11Speaker 1: let's just all go under this sample of enthusiastic consent, which,
- 8:16Speaker 1: by the way, you're truly able to communicate. This is
- 8:19Speaker 1: the part you're doing already. And I think this is
- 8:34Speaker 1: one thing that's been on my mind a lot lately
- 8:38Speaker 1: when it comes to this conversation around consents, especially since
- 8:42Speaker 1: we did deb con and it's which if you miss
- 8:46Speaker 1: that episode stands for dubious consent, is that we have
- 8:51Speaker 1: so many societal level issues that are making it almost
- 8:55Speaker 1: impossible for women, especially to truly consent because there's all
- 9:02Speaker 1: of these well, I did it for my safety because
- 9:07Speaker 1: I didn't think I would be safe if I said no,
- 9:09Speaker 1: or he didn't take no fur an answer are um,
- 9:14Speaker 1: all of these other things that are at play that
- 9:18Speaker 1: we are conditioned into, that we are raised with, um,
- 9:23Speaker 1: indoctrinated with that make it really hard to say no
- 9:30Speaker 1: if you mean no and for it to matter and
- 9:33Speaker 1: also yes for women and a lot of times to
- 9:36Speaker 1: you it's like not a good situation at all. And
- 9:39Speaker 1: it's I mean, just the way we pressure people into
- 9:42Speaker 1: thinking that sex is something you should want no matter what,
- 9:48Speaker 1: and then this idea that you can't, like really safely
- 9:52Speaker 1: say no. I think it's just a huge problem. And
- 9:55Speaker 1: I think it's we're not allowing for consent to exist
- 9:59Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. Right. Well, again, this has
- 10:01Speaker 1: this whole like narrative that a powerful man takes what
- 10:05Speaker 1: they want, so therefore this is sexy for women, so
- 10:10Speaker 1: thinking about like gone with it when m awful book.
- 10:14Speaker 1: I know, I know, but it became one of the
- 10:16Speaker 1: first things I remember seeing being held as a romantic
- 10:21Speaker 1: when he sweeps her off for feet after saying no, no,
- 10:23Speaker 1: no to him and then having sex, him coming in
- 10:27Speaker 1: shyly the next day, and her being like, I enjoyed
- 10:30Speaker 1: it so much, but I have to act like I'm
- 10:31Speaker 1: mad at him, and him being so like, yeah, I
- 10:33Speaker 1: did something wrong, Yes, he did something wrong. But this
- 10:36Speaker 1: narrative that this is what women want is really awful,
- 10:39Speaker 1: really awful. And then like the whole idea of just
- 10:42Speaker 1: we'll just say no, there's so many things, like you said,
- 10:46Speaker 1: women can't say no, even say no to dating, to
- 10:49Speaker 1: a date, to giving a phone number has become dangerous
- 10:53Speaker 1: and it's become a whole point that people are proving
- 10:58Speaker 1: our our point when we say no, you really men
- 11:01Speaker 1: can't take rejection, and so therefore we try other ways
- 11:05Speaker 1: for you to like ease the blow. And when it
- 11:08Speaker 1: comes to a sexual situation, there's at one point where
- 11:10Speaker 1: I feel like it's too far. Now we can't say anything,
- 11:13Speaker 1: which should never be the case. But again, consent has
- 11:16Speaker 1: everything to do with communicating everything, Like, y'all need to
- 11:20Speaker 1: know your boundary, So you need to know what you're
- 11:22Speaker 1: wanting to do, what you're willing to do, what you're
- 11:24Speaker 1: not willing to do, and that's okay. Y'all need to
- 11:26Speaker 1: be able to say you are willing to take it
- 11:28Speaker 1: that far wonderful. You're also willing to say, this is
- 11:31Speaker 1: the thing that I don't want to do, so never
- 11:33Speaker 1: never ask me again. And also I shouldn't do something
- 11:38Speaker 1: necessarily just to reward you if I don't want to.
- 11:41Speaker 1: Like that whole narrative is so gross, that whole like
- 11:44Speaker 1: birthday sex and all those like transactional Yeah, it's just
- 11:47Speaker 1: this whole level like of course we joke about it
- 11:49Speaker 1: and move on. But does that really it doesn't seem sexy.
- 11:54Speaker 1: Maybe it's just me too caught up in the world
- 11:57Speaker 1: of being seeing the trauma that just doesn't seem sexy.
- 12:01Speaker 1: I also want to talk about this point of like
- 12:03Speaker 1: no means no is way too simple, Like people really
- 12:07Speaker 1: want to say that, but even that doesn't work. We've
- 12:11Speaker 1: seen that in court cases where women can say no
- 12:14Speaker 1: or it actually is defined by law that women who
- 12:16Speaker 1: are unconscious are not able to consent. Children under the
- 12:19Speaker 1: age of eighteen cannot consent. Yet so many people are
- 12:24Speaker 1: being uh forgiven by law when they push those boundaries,
- 12:29Speaker 1: and so many of the victims are being vilified for
- 12:33Speaker 1: a being drunk or being around or wearing a dress
- 12:36Speaker 1: what like. There's so many things that this doesn't cover.
- 12:40Speaker 1: But yeah, also like being able to communicate, Hey, let's
- 12:45Speaker 1: not trick each other and trying to have a baby
- 12:47Speaker 1: that is not consensual and that is a violation of
- 12:50Speaker 1: our trust. So absolutely, there's so many conversations with stuff
- 12:55Speaker 1: like that when you miscommunicate, And because the law is
- 12:58Speaker 1: so strict, it's also really harmful because we can't say
- 13:03Speaker 1: if we feel violated without people jumping down our throats
- 13:06Speaker 1: saying that's not what that that means and then automatically
- 13:09Speaker 1: assuming that we're saying they broke a law. And of
- 13:11Speaker 1: course there's this whole level and we're seeing it constantly
- 13:18Speaker 1: with actors today or people today being like, this is
- 13:21Speaker 1: the victim's fault, Look what she's already done, look who
- 13:24Speaker 1: she is, or um, that's not rape. That probably pretendally
- 13:28Speaker 1: that's rape a season sorry, that was a prime case,
- 13:32Speaker 1: Like every woman has felt that, and for many women
- 13:36Speaker 1: who has allowed that for their lives and really felt
- 13:38Speaker 1: like that was actual sex because that's all they knew.
- 13:41Speaker 1: They were like, what are you talking about. He didn't
- 13:43Speaker 1: do anything wrong, you're just playing in a victim and like, no, no,
- 13:48Speaker 1: that is a violation. And though he didn't get charged,
- 13:51Speaker 1: because rape and sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, any of
- 13:56Speaker 1: those are ridiculously hard to prove in any basis is
- 14:00Speaker 1: we know this, it doesn't mean it wasn't wrong, and
- 14:04Speaker 1: it doesn't mean she's not valid for feeling violated, which
- 14:08Speaker 1: is that bigger conversation. Yeah, yeah, And there's so many,
- 14:13Speaker 1: as I said, like if you if you're thinking about
- 14:15Speaker 1: like narratives we watch growing up about what romances and
- 14:18Speaker 1: who does the the pursuing and what what does romantic mean?
- 14:23Speaker 1: And then a lot of times that script, that very
- 14:28Speaker 1: heteronormative script is like man pursues, doesn't listen, woman has
- 14:33Speaker 1: to be like coquettish but actually does want the man,
- 14:38Speaker 1: which is so toxic because yeah, again you'd say no,
- 14:43Speaker 1: I won't believe you, and yeah, like for a long
- 14:49Speaker 1: time for me, you know, I did grow up watching
- 14:52Speaker 1: these Disney movies or whatever, and I thought that was
- 14:55Speaker 1: right too, like I also believed that I also thought
- 14:58Speaker 1: I had to act that way, so got like really murky,
- 15:01Speaker 1: and it was definitely not about what I wanted at all,
- 15:04Speaker 1: but what I thought was normal. I think it's romantic
- 15:08Speaker 1: situations absolutely, and I think that's that's that whole ordeal.
- 15:12Speaker 1: And this also goes for men, because we know we've
- 15:17Speaker 1: had people men right into our show about they are
- 15:20Speaker 1: a sexual and how they are seeing as lesser of
- 15:23Speaker 1: men because they're a sexual. Like women's still not acceptable,
- 15:27Speaker 1: but a little more accepted because there's also the joke
- 15:30Speaker 1: of their not sexual after certain time after marriage. They're like, oh,
- 15:34Speaker 1: we don't have to have sex as much, which is
- 15:35Speaker 1: a whole odd narrative that happens in that way. And
- 15:38Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, some people biological like that, not everyone.
- 15:41Speaker 1: Why is this all like all or none? But for men,
- 15:44Speaker 1: like we have to be virile and like always wanted
- 15:48Speaker 1: to have sex or they're not masculine enough and having
- 15:51Speaker 1: that same conversation and which is again that whole like
- 15:54Speaker 1: that's where toxic masculinity is awful and this is just
- 15:57Speaker 1: as bad for you as well, And this is where
- 15:58Speaker 1: feminism is good for everyone, for everyone, and we should
- 16:03Speaker 1: all be able to say yes, no, maybe, yes, whatever,
- 16:06Speaker 1: and not feel like there's judgment based on your sexual performance,
- 16:10Speaker 1: your sexual desires, or your sexual needs, like there there's
- 16:14Speaker 1: any of that, whether it is high, low, in between, whatever,
- 16:18Speaker 1: and again, but this also does include which was this
- 16:20Speaker 1: narrative of following through and communicating and not lying about things.
- 16:27Speaker 1: That takes a way consent when you're trying to deceive
- 16:29Speaker 1: and manipulate people. Yeah, because you can't make an informed decision.
- 16:34Speaker 1: And I think that's another like this it's so complicated
- 16:38Speaker 1: because there's so much stuff at play here, But that's
- 16:41Speaker 1: another piece of it. Is here in the US, I mean,
- 16:44Speaker 1: sex education is dismal if it exists at all. So
- 16:48Speaker 1: we're going in as young folks without like the tools
- 16:53Speaker 1: to understand a lot of times, right, we're basing it
- 16:55Speaker 1: off of yes, these movies we've seen are or we
- 16:58Speaker 1: see like how people reacted to the whole season sorry,
- 17:02Speaker 1: thinking we're like, oh, well, I can never be like her,
- 17:05Speaker 1: I can never speak up like we're seeing that, and
- 17:07Speaker 1: it's just this toxic super things that are not giving
- 17:13Speaker 1: us the space to make healthy, enthusiastic, consensual decisions a
- 17:18Speaker 1: lot of times, and we have to unlearn all that stuff,
- 17:20Speaker 1: and unfortunately for a lot of us, we do it
- 17:23Speaker 1: when we're older and we realize and probably have already
- 17:26Speaker 1: been in some situations that we did not want to
- 17:29Speaker 1: be in, right, And that's the problem. Um, But I
- 17:32Speaker 1: will say it is videos like these, even those dramatic
- 17:35Speaker 1: and a lot, uh but it does open up to
- 17:38Speaker 1: conversations and I think it's important that we have that. Again,
- 17:42Speaker 1: TikTok is catering to a lot of younger generations. I
- 17:46Speaker 1: think Instagram has become the new Facebook, and Facebook is
- 17:49Speaker 1: becoming obsolete. Away on the Instagram is the older generation
- 17:52Speaker 1: chilling there and then uh it TikTok is like the
- 17:55Speaker 1: new young funding which but yeah, that's but think that
- 18:00Speaker 1: these conversations are so important where we can learn and
- 18:03Speaker 1: educate and hopefully young people can can understand what this is.
- 18:07Speaker 1: Of course, it also spreads a lot of toxicity in there,
- 18:10Speaker 1: and I hope that it gets called out. And also
- 18:12Speaker 1: the soon we'll talk about the FBI report calling pretty
- 18:15Speaker 1: much in Cells a new terrorist group or a terrorist group.
- 18:18Speaker 1: And this the same level of toxic masculinity when we
- 18:22Speaker 1: talk about in cells, and we had that episode before
- 18:25Speaker 1: when we talk about the fact that they felt like
- 18:27Speaker 1: they are owed sex and what's withheld they are have
- 18:30Speaker 1: the right to become violent, which is again this narrative
- 18:33Speaker 1: that has really created harmful, horrorful connotations and dangerous situations
- 18:38Speaker 1: for so many people. But yeah, we need to start
- 18:41Speaker 1: with people who learn some and continue to learn more.
- 18:45Speaker 1: So now that we've kind of like, yeah, informed consent,
- 18:48Speaker 1: enthusiastic consent, let's go one step further, y'all, let's keep going.
- 18:53Speaker 1: And I will say, because I have to bring up
- 18:55Speaker 1: fan fiction in every episode that's in my contract, it
- 18:57Speaker 1: is nice to see there are plenty of areas, as
- 19:01Speaker 1: we discussed in dub Coom that are very They're still
- 19:04Speaker 1: toxic and bad, but a lot of things I've read
- 19:07Speaker 1: because I've grown up with this, people are embracing the like,
- 19:10Speaker 1: enthusiastic consent at every step, like, at every just touching
- 19:14Speaker 1: like And I'm very That makes me very happy because
- 19:17Speaker 1: that was not the case when I was reading fan
- 19:19Speaker 1: fiction in middle school. That was not a thing. So
- 19:23Speaker 1: I am happy that we're having these conversations in a
- 19:27Speaker 1: variety of spaces. I still think we really need sex
- 19:31Speaker 1: education is so important, and some people get it you know,
- 19:34Speaker 1: from family members, our guardians or something. A lot of
- 19:37Speaker 1: us don't are a lot of us don't get it
- 19:38Speaker 1: until it's wage because I'm basically what I'm saying is
- 19:41Speaker 1: we shouldn't have to depend on fan pics and and
- 19:43Speaker 1: TikTok for this, but I am glad that those are happening. Yes. Well, um,
- 19:51Speaker 1: if you have any thoughts about all of the listeners,
- 19:54Speaker 1: please let us know. You can emails that stuff to
- 19:56Speaker 1: your mom Stuff at i heeart media dot com. You
- 19:58Speaker 1: can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast or
- 20:00Speaker 1: Instagram and stuff I've never sold you. Thanks as always
- 20:03Speaker 1: to our super producer, Christina Dany Christina Yes, and thanks
- 20:07Speaker 1: to you for listening Stuff Home never told you the
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