Exploiting, Enduring, and Resisting Ambiguous Sexual Consent in the Grey Area

For decades, feminists have been educating young people about healthy sexual interactions, promoting the benefits of affirmative consent. College students know that “Yes means yes!” Yet rates of sexual assault on college campuses remain stable. What’s going on? Despite concerted affirmative consent campaigns, coercive sexual intimacy and sexual assault persist, with some students (mostly men) still forcing sex on their partners—“taking it” from them. Facing ubiquitous sexual pressure, young people often relent to unwanted sex and “just take it.” Outsiders pass judgement on victim/survivors, demanding, “It’s just sex! Shut up and take it!” Survivors—despite their trauma—resist, “taking back” bodily empowerment.

In Exploiting, Enduring, and Resisting Ambiguous Sexual Consent in the Grey Area: Taking It, Kristen Myers and Patricia Wallace conduct an intersectional analysis of data provided by a diverse group of college students to explore these four meanings of “taking it.” They contextualize their analysis, examining the impact of sexual education in the U.S. as well as laws and policies aimed at reducing sexual assault. Using both sociological and social psychological lenses, they seek to illuminate the grey area surrounding sexual consent. The authors’ goal is to help spur changes in culture, practices, rules, and infrastructure to ultimately reduce sexual violence and increase sexual autonomy for all people.