Do you:

A. Urge them to continue, since you’ve already started

B. Stop, even though you’d like to continue?

If you picked (A), you may not have obtained consent from your sex partner.

Consent can be more complex than we think. It’s hard to boil down to pithy epithets like “no means no”, or even “yes means yes”. Considering variables like a power differential, practices like “stealthing” or the sending of nudes, or mid-act changes of heart, a standard negotiation playbook doesn’t quite cut it.

In a new survey AWARE conducted with Ngee Ann Polytechnic, we asked 539 young adults, from 17 to 25, to share their perspectives on consent and their personal experiences with it. The results were encouraging: Many young people appear to have a strong general understanding of consent, and a desire to have more open conversations about it. Yet certain scenarios proved more difficult for our respondents to navigate.

At this event, we’ll roll up our sleeves and dive deep into the nebulous nature of consent, by talking through our survey findings (including various tricky hypothetical situations) with a panel of experts, then breaking off into small-group discussions. Together, we’ll work towards understanding a comprehensive definition of consent, put to rest some harmful myths and ensure that our decision-making in the bedroom is informed by empathy and respect. Join us on Saturday, 25 July, on Zoom from 2-3.30pm.

This event is pay-what-you-can. Suggested donation of $5 per head. All proceeds will go to AWARE’s Vulnerable Women’s Fund to help grow our services as much as possible during this period. Visit the campaign here.

Event Schedule

1. Presentation of survey findings
2. A panel discussion, moderated by AWARE’s Head of Advocacy and Research, Shailey Hingorani
3. Facilitated small group discussions

Our panellists

Carissa Cheow

Carissa is currently reading her Master’s in Public Policy at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. A political theorist by training and community organiser by circumstantial necessity, she serves as the co-founding Co-President of Students for a Safer NUS, a community organization tackling sexual violence, and co-founding Advisor to transNUS, a ground-up collective of trans and nonbinary students, staff and alumni in her university. Her research interests range from the politics of de-alienation to interpersonal and intrapersonal politics. She is also currently working on her first collection of poems, titled you need a very small space to read these poems.

Lee Yi Ting

Yi Ting taught in JCs for five years, and was a Ministry of Education-trained sexuality education facilitator. She currently works in the areas of gender justice and sexual rights. She is a facilitator for AWARE’s Birds & Bees workshop series, which helps parents have important conversations with their children about sex in a non-judgmental way.

Priscilla Chia

Priscilla is a lawyer in private practice. Priscilla’s practice focuses on commercial, public interest and criminal litigation. Outside of her legal practice, Priscilla is actively involved in and invests her time in non-profit and public interest work.