Consent on Campus: A Manifesto
by Donna Freitas
(Oxford University Press, £12.99)
 

THIS is a passionate, timely and practical examination of sexual violence on college campuses and, while its focus is on the US, the analysis and solutions are just as applicable and deliverable to universities in this country.

In the US, consent on campus is at a pivotal point. TitleIX, which has enabled those students who have experienced sexual violence or harassment to report their perpetuator(s) to college authorities, is facing pushback from the Trump government.

Donna Freitas argues that colleges and universities have much more to do, with TitleIX and tick-box consent education not being the full answer. “Tackling systemic problems like sexual violence goes to the heart of what higher education is about,” she asserts. “Universities claim to be powerful forces for good in our world and for the good of young people within them. It’s time they acted like it.”

Freitas has studied the work of post-modern feminist philosophers of religion, including the work of Grace Jantzen and Julia Kristeva, and a central idea of their work is to interrupt and rupture oppressive structures in society.

“The scripts and narratives college students inherit about sex (with all those should and musts and not-allowed-to) need a lot of interrogation and a good deal of interruption so that the culture of sexual violence can be revealed and a culture of consent can supplant it,” she says.

The book’s second part is a blueprint that colleges and universities could use in any country by bringing the campus into the classroom to analyse and challenge thinking.

Topics such as drinking to excess and the hook-up culture ought to be examined with the same intellectual rigour as any other traditional subject, with the ultimate aim of developing a set of values for a framework of sexual ethics that privileges consent, one specific to the needs of the campus.

The book is essential reading for everyone involved in university life, from the principal to faculty staff and especially those who work for student services.

And it’s a fascinating read for students and anyone interested in the policies and practices surrounding sexual violence and consent now.