Content warning: This article discusses sexual assault in a way that some readers may find disturbingIn February 2021, Chanel Contos posted an Instagram story that sparked a movement that is changing the conversation around consent in Australia. “Actually posting the Instagram story was a moment of anger,” she says Refinery29 Australia. “I was hoping it would create some kind of justice or some kind of control by removing the shame around it.” In an Instagram Story, she asked her followers if they or someone they knew had been sexually assaulted while at school. Within 24 hours, more than 200 people answered ‘yes’. AdvertisementADVERTISEMENTContos asked this question because she too is a survivor of sexual assault. When she was only 13 years old, she was sexually assaulted by her older boyfriend. Two years later, she received her first lesson on consent. “When I was 15 years old and went through consent education myself for the first time, I realized how preventable this widespread form of sexual violence is among young adults and young people, and how the solution seemed obvious.” , she says. After an overwhelming response to her Instagram Story, Contos launched a petition calling for more holistic and early consent education in schools. She also published a Google Doc, where young women could share their stories anonymously. More than 44,000 people signed the petition and more than 6,600 women came forward to share their stories — many for the first time.” It gave people the confidence to look after themselves and say, ‘It’s actually not okay, and it happened, and that person did this to me,’ says Contos. This petition and testimonies later became the Teach Us to Consent campaign, which was presented to MPs across the country to advocate for better consent education. In February 2022, education ministers from across Australia have committed to mandatory holistic age-appropriate consent education in every school and in every school year, starting in 2023.
Check out this post on Instagram
While Contos was initially motivated by anger, her approach through the Teach Me Consent campaign and all the work she has done over the past two and a half years has been one of empathy. She wants to attack the problem, not individuals. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “The quote at the beginning of my book is ‘Be ruthless to systems, be kind to people,’ and I feel like that’s pretty much the ethos I’ve tried to take on,” she explains. “I think it’s really helpful to understand the problems we have in our society as structural and systemic problems and to be willing to take individual responsibility to try to change that, without feeling that it’s the individual’s fault.” As much as you can blame the individual in relation to the context they grew up in and the environment they grew up in and what media they consumed and what their parents said at home and what their teachers said at school and what their friends said for what reason theirs parents and teachers said? “That’s exactly what he’ll be tackling next week when he appears on the Reimagined Masculinity panel at SXSW alongside The Daily Aus founder Zara Seidler, human rights activist Tarang Chawla and men’s mental health expert Dr. Zac Seidler. The panel aims to discuss how masculinity can be reimagined in a society where men like Andrew Tate rule and men’s rights activists teach boys and men harmful attitudes towards women, consent and sexual violence from a young age.”We are trying to unpack this concept of masculinity and what it currently means to people and what it could mean,” explains Contos. “I think we’re in a really interesting era right now where Andrew Tate has taken over and Donald Trump has taken over as president of the United States — two very powerful men in the world who don’t display masculinity in a way that we think is productive, healthy or safe for society.Advertisement ADVERTISEMENT”And I think we want to understand why. I think the reason these people are allowed to thrive is also because there’s a lack of space for healthy influences on young men.” Contos says that if asked to name 10 women who inspire her or aspire to be like them, she’d be spoiled for choice. But she believes that young men don’t have the same access to healthy role models.”I think we need to mobilize men to want to be the people they want to look up to when they were younger,” she says. “Teenagers are greatly influenced by external factors. They’re in a school system where there’s this social hierarchy and very clear rules about what makes you cool and what doesn’t make you cool.” Ultimately, Contos believes that changing the narrative about masculinity from a young age could change the way men communicate with women as they age.”How do we reinvent that and change the script so that masculinity is ultimately about being a good man?”Chanel Contos will appear on the Masculinity Reimagined panel at SXSW at 4pm on Monday, October 16th. Find out more information and buy tickets here.If you or someone you know has experienced sexual or domestic violence and needs help, call 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), the National Domestic Sexual Violence ServiceWant more? Get the best stories from Refinery29 Australia delivered to your inbox every week. Apply here!
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education