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Toxic Sex Culture on Campus?
By Dana Goldstein - Jan 17th, 2007 at 11:41 am EST
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Better high school sexuality education, including role-playing on asking for sexual consent, would decrease the incidence of sexual assaults on booze-soaked college campuses, Courtney E. Martin argues today in the American Prospect. Do you agree? How would you have reacted in high school if a teacher had asked you to role-play the following situation: You've left a party and are listening to Bob Marley in the dorm room of an individual you met just a few hours earlier. You kiss this person, and they kiss you back. You would like to move over to the bed. What do you say? What is your body language? How can you tell if they are inebriated?

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Uh...
By Superduperficial Jan 17th 2007 at 12:25 pm EST
...Whoever came up with this as an idea to reduce incidents of sexual assault has obviously never met an actual teenager.

Talking about the role-playing, that is.

If you want to lower incidents of sexual assualt, the solution is pretty straightforward - lower the drinking age to 18. Binge drinking arose as a reaction to the criminalization of normal drinking, and as a result people got socialized into much more dangerous behavior.
Re: Uh...
By Liberaltarian Jan 17th 2007 at 12:45 pm EST
We may want to push it further down to 16, so parents have the opportunity to teach moderation to their youngins before they head off to college. There are tradeoffs, but then again, there are always tradeoffs, nomatter what.
Re: Uh...
By jr Jan 19th 2007 at 6:47 am EST
"Here's your driver's license and a handle of Captain Morgan's. Happy birthday!"

Nah, but I'm still in favor of lowering the voting age to at least 16.
  
A little extreme.
By Nicole Jan 17th 2007 at 12:32 pm EST
I don't think role playing would be effective. If anything it would make many teens even more uncomfortable about sexuality and how to deal with it realistically. Who would actually want to act these scenarios out in front of an entire class? But I think the general idea of making sex less taboo in schools and opening up honest discussion about the complexities of situations many teens have or will be faced with is a good idea, as well as making it a focal point to discuss how to have not just consentual sex but sexual relations that are built on respect. Working on better communication would definitely help, as well as learning it's not just about saying yes or no. Abstinece only programs or even programs that push abstinecne too hard often make it so many kids are not comfortable talking about it with adults or eachother in a mature way. I think a lot of teens almost see sex as some act of rebellion and that's how it starts becoming degrading and in some cases, harmful, so finding a way to change the way kids percieve sex and those they may want to be sexually involved with can make big changes.
Re: A little extreme.
By jr Jan 19th 2007 at 6:50 am EST
I remember my first sex-ed class was taught by a 66 year-old Southern woman who couldn't pronounce "prostate."

Yeah, like role-playing would have made that less awkward.

(Incidentally, we were also segregated by sex, and I sadly don't think Cobb County, GA is quite ready for same-sex-ed role playing.)
  
buzz in the blogosphere
By rhrealitycheck Jan 23rd 2007 at 10:29 am EST
There are so many different issues that contribute to this situation - inadequate sex ed, cultural norms, gender inequality, etc. I agree with commenters that it would be hard to get teenagers to roleplay on such a sensitive and highly charged issue. Amie Newman links to this post in her roundup of the blogosphere buzz on this topic - check it out at RH Reality Check.

Link

Cheers,
Tyler
  
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