In the midst of the ongoing debate in Congress about defunding Planned Parenthood, the organization released four videos on Monday about consent.
The videos, featuring relationships between two women, two men and a man and a woman, show what consent and being honest with your partner looks like.
The first video, “How Do You Know if Someone Wants to Have Sex with You?” gets right down to the core point: the only way you know you have consent is if your partner tells you.
“Silence does not equal consent,” the narrator of the video says. “Communication doesn’t always happen with words. Body language can say a lot if you pay attention.”
The other three videos show examples of when you know your partner is interested in having sex, when they are kind of into it and when they just don’t want to. Each gives tips about how to ask for consent, how to tell your partner you’re not quite ready for sex and how to handle rejection.
“No one owes you time, attention or sex,” the narrator says. He also reminds viewers that consent cannot be given by someone who is intoxicated or unconscious.
While there are many different scenarios and the videos don’t cover all possibilities, the bottom line of the videos is, “Pay attention to your partner’s feelings and respect their limits.”
Nicole Brown