A recent “Consent Carnival” hosted at the University of Southern California (USC) tried to teach students the basics of sexual consent by making them “have sex” with a giant bouncy house and by giving them a 100-word checklist about how to kiss somebody without assaulting them.
The carnival, held Thursday night and organized by various student groups, was intended to promote the “yes means yes” standard of sexual consent that is now the legal norm at California colleges. But according to eyewitnesses it frequently devolved into a series of strange games and odd analogies.
USC student Jacob Ellenhorn told Campus Reform there was a bizarre attempt to explain sexual consent using a giant bouncy castle, in addition to a special kind of Kissing Booth.
“They had a big obstacle course, and when you entered into it, two workers stood outside and would routinely tell you to stop, as in ‘I’m uncomfortable; stop,’ and if you didn’t stop you didn’t get a ticket at the end,” he explained. “It was like you were having sex with the bouncy house, and they would give you permission to go through each stage of it.”
The “Kissing Booth” at the carnival offered participants Hershey Kisses stuck to sheets of papers that offered a five-part, 100-word explanation of what a kiss must be for it to not be sexual assault:
Affirmative: We’re really excited to share this kiss with you and we’re letting you know!
Coherent: We’re present and able to recognize exactly what’s happening when we give this kiss to you.
Willing: We made the decision to give you this kiss ourselves, without pressure or manipulation from you or anybody else.
Ongoing: Should you come back for another kiss, check in to see if we’d still like to give you one.
Mutual: Sure, we offered you a kiss, but that doesn’t mean you have to accept it. Coming over to our table doesn’t forfeit your right to say no.
In other words, even trying to kiss a person a second time without explicit permission leaves one open to a possible claim of sexual assault, as does kissing somebody who consents but is insufficiently enthusiastic. Surprise kisses of any sort are definitely out.
Ironically, while the carnival was full of games and complicated kissing guidelines, one student told The College Fix that the festivities included almost no discussion of alcohol, even though alcohol-fueled hookups are one of the major sources of campus sexual assault allegations.
“I was surprised that they did not talk about alcohol at all, because it is definitely a major cause of many sexual assault cases,” student Caroline Westchester said. “I think a lot of people don’t want to bring it up because that would be blaming the victim, but I think it’s important to acknowledge.”
Send tips to blake@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.