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A cartoon that explains how understanding sexual consent is as straightforward as making a cup of tea is doing the rounds. The animation is being promoted as part of a social media campaign by the Crown Prosecution Service, Thames Valley Police, Rape Crisis and other UK agencies. The concept rests on the idea that you wouldn’t force someone to drink a cup of tea they didn’t want just because you made it for them.
It’s a clever idea that has prompted debate over the limits of consent where previous campaigns have failed. The law is a lot more complicated than this video suggests but it has got discussion going.
It is true, as the animation makes clear, that agreement is not unequivocal. People may say “yes” and then go on to withdraw that consent. It’s also true that unconscious people can’t make decisions, either about whether they want a cup of tea or sex. And, as the video reminds us, it is true that wanting a cup of tea (or sex) one day does not automatically equate to wanting it at another time.
But there are limits to this analogy. What of the drunken person who insists they want a cup of tea when they don’t actually have the capacity to make that decision? The animation deals with this rather simplistically, showing that once someone is unconscious they shouldn’t be made to drink tea.
In this context, shifting the focus onto whether real consent has been given is a good thing. The tea analogy is simplistic but perhaps that is what we need. Attention spans are short in the age of social media and this entertaining animation makes important points easily accessible in a way the lengthy prose of the – albeit well meaning – Crown Prosecution Service cannot.
