George Lawlor, 19, a British university student, was invited to attend a class on sexual consent, this curriculum has been introduced to many universities across the UK. Lawlor took to Facebook to voice his opinion, the post was titled "Why I don't need consent lessons." The post was accompanied by a picture of Lawlor holding up a notebook that read, "This is not what a rapist looks like." He stated, "I don't have to be taught to not be a rapist... That much comes naturally to me, as I am sure it does to the overwhelming majority of people you and I know." This has sparked a huge debate over sexual consent classes.
Rape is a serious issue and many rapes go unreported. The way I see it, Lawlor has taken this situation way too personally. The university was trying to further educate their students on how serious rape is (with all of the recent college rapes, it doesn't hurt to know more) and here Lawlor is, being offended that he was invited to obtain knowledge. Lets get this straight, they weren't calling him out that he looked like a rapist, they were trying to inform him about rape. Being educated on specific topics allows the person to weigh the pros and cons of their actions, there's a reason why we're trying to educate people in Africa and less developed countries about sexually transmitted diseases and birth control. As for the "it's common sense to not go around raping people," though it might be, that won't stop it from happening so that's a worthless sentence to me. As Voltaire said,"Common sense is not so common." Taking steps to help inform people about the topics at hand do more than relying on pathetic "common sense" that can vary from every individual. This reminds me of something I read in the APUSH textbook, It talked about how southerners refused the idea of public education for their children because that would be "northernizing" them. This was an insanely stupid idea to me, the parents were too stubborn and selfish to think of the good of the community, instead their children paid for their disliking of the north. Lawlor, some advice, take the course, whether you're a rapist or not because it never hurts to know more.
"There is nothing more uncommon than common sense." -Frank Lloyd Wright
The more you know.
Source
Mashable
"There is nothing more uncommon than common sense." -Frank Lloyd Wright
The more you know.
Source
Mashable
You would think that people know what's right from wrong, but you'd be surprised at what people actually don't know. I think any classes like this can be helpful. It's silly for him to be offended because this class will be the difference between a sexual assault or nothing at all. Holding up a sign that says that you're not what a rapist look like is incorrect. Anyone can be rapist. You can't just go around identifying who is and who isn't a rapist. It doesn't work like that. I just hope that man finds a new way to look at this situation.
ReplyDelete-Kiyanna Elliott
I heard they were introducing this into the curriculum in California. With such high rape statistics in college, it's an excellent idea to clearly explain the laws of sexual consent. A surprising number of people are ignorant, and can't hurt to make it clear. It would also be beneficial to victims because many of them don't think what happened is illegal or serious enough to report.
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