Yes Means Yes: California Adopts Affirmative Consent Standard

Being Drunk is Not Consent Photo: Wolfram Burner (cc)

By Susan Sered — October 2, 2014

California Gov. Jerry Brown last week signed into law a bill (SB 967) making California the first state in the nation to require universities receiving state funds to use an “affirmative consent standard” for determining whether consent was given by both parties to sexual activity.

This move represents a paradigm shift from women as victims and potential victims whom we need to encourage to shout “no” a bit louder, to women as agents who have the positive right to engage or refrain from engaging in sexual relations when and with whom and under circumstances of their choosing.

Schools and colleges have been trying to convey the message that “no means no” for at least two decades, yet according to recent data, about 20 percent of women are sexually assaulted in college. In other words, “just say no” hasn’t worked any better in preventing sexual violence than it did in the utterly failed war on drugs.

Designed to address high incidences and less-than-stellar responses to rape, sexual harassment and stalking on college campuses, the law removes the onus from potential victims to unequivocally convey and prove refusal or resistance (“no”) and places the onus on potential perpetrators to ensure active consent (“yes”).

Flirting is not consent
Photo: Wolfram Burner (cc)

According to the bill:

“Affirmative consent” means affirmative, conscious, and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity. It is the responsibility of each person involved in the sexual activity to ensure that he or she has the affirmative consent of the other or others to engage in the sexual activity. Lack of protest or resistance does not mean consent, nor does silence mean consent. Affirmative consent must be ongoing throughout a sexual activity and can be revoked at any time. The existence of a dating relationship between the persons involved, or the fact of past sexual relations between them, should never by itself be assumed to be an indicator of consent.

The bill further clarifies that “it shall not be a valid excuse that the accused believed that the complainant affirmatively consented to the sexual activity if the accused knew or reasonably should have known that the complainant was unable to consent to the sexual activity.”

The Problem with the Status Quo

“No means no” has been the dominant anti-rape paradigm in the United States for the past several decades. One unfortunate consequence of the “no” paradigm is the responsibility it places on women who have been assaulted to prove that they really did say “no.”

But even in the wake of the Violence Against Women Act, the majority of rapists are not arrested; only an estimated 5 percent of rapists are convicted; and an estimated 3 percent spend any time in jail.

Rape remains one of the few crimes in which the victim is scrutinized for ulterior motives, false accusations and moral deviance. Despite rape shield laws designed to protect women from verbal assaults by defense lawyers at rape trials, victims can be asked about their social and sexual history when these issues are ruled relevant to determining consent.

Victims least likely to see offenders convicted are older, poorer, deemed promiscuous or prostitutes, have a psychiatric or drug abuse history or criminal record, didn’t overtly resist or were acquainted with the offender, or had a history of previous rape or abuse.

Joy, one of the Boston area women whom I have come to know through my work with criminalized women, explained to me that when she went to court to testify against a man who violently and brutally raped her, she assumed that the evidence against the perpetrator was very strong: DNA evidence had led to his arrest originally — his DNA was found on the police computer system; police officers and crime scene officers testified; other witnesses from her apartment building testified; the nurse who examined her in the emergency room testified.

However, he was found not guilty.

“The last three questions the defense attorney asked me,” said Joy, “are: ‘Isn’t it true that you were in prison?’ ‘Isn’t it true that you are an addict?’ ‘Isn’t it true that you used to work in prostitution?’”

Stop blaming victims
Photo: Wolfram Burner (cc)

In other words, her “no” didn’t count.

Joy’s experience represents a broad trend: In this era of DNA testing, consent is the primary defense used in rape cases. Coming at this time, California’s affirmative consent standard is a critical step in diverting attention away from the behavior, clothes, personality, drug use, criminal record or degree of resistance by women who have been raped and placing it where it belongs — on the actions of the perpetrator.

The Need for a New Model

California’s new “yes means yes” law has been critiqued as impossible to implement on the grounds that “consent” is too difficult to assess. I disagree.

As the former chair of the Institutional Review Board (the body that reviews the ethics of research involving human subjects) at Suffolk University, I suggest that the State of California turn to the well-developed, refined and extensively evaluated protocols for informed consent in human subjects research as a model for interpretation and implementation of affirmative consent in sexual activity.

Protocols for protecting human subjects acknowledge the power differentials inherent in the relationship between researchers (in possession of knowledge, institutional backing, monetary resources and access to goods and services such as new medical treatments) and human subjects. The structural imbalance of power in the relationship between researcher and subject demands that researchers are pro-active and clear in facilitating the informed consent or refusal of each human subject.

Consent cannot be assumed, silence does not mean “yes,” and it is the responsibility of the researcher to present potential subjects with a real and meaningful choice regarding participation in the research, to refrain from offering inappropriate financial incentives, and to avoid any hint of threatening negative repercussions for refusal to participate.

The process of asking for and receiving informed consent includes: (1) disclosing to potential research subjects information needed to make an informed decision; (2) facilitating the understanding of what has been disclosed; and (3) positively promoting the voluntariness of the decision about whether or not to participate in the research.

The language and the technicalities (such as written proof of consent) used in human subjects’ research would need to be revised to meet the needs of ensuring consensual sexual activity, but the model makes a great deal of sense.

Like research interactions, gendered interactions are inherently unequal given the greater incomes, financial assets, political power and physical size and strength of men as a group vis-à-vis women as a group, and the far greater likelihood that women (nearly 1 in 5) than men (1 in 71) has been raped at some time in their lives.

Clearly spelling out the responsibilities of those in positions of dominance will in the long run facilitate positive interactions despite power differentials. And clearly spelling out the rights of those in subordinate positions will, I believe, contribute to more equality in all spheres of life.

* * * * *

Susan Sered is a professor of sociology at Suffolk University in Boston and a senior researcher at Suffolk’s Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights. Her most recent book is “Can’t Catch a Break: Gender, Jail, Drugs and the Limits of Personal Responsibility” (University of California Press, 2014).

3 responses to “Yes Means Yes: California Adopts Affirmative Consent Standard”

  1. One thing that seems common to many of the interactions between men and women is that men are assumed responsible for a lack of responsibility on women’s part.

    Two college kids get drunk, have consensual sex, and she later decides that she was too drunk to give consent? So, he “raped” her? Ah, if they were both drunk, wouldn’t this mean she “raped” him because he wasn’t capable of giving his consent? This law, like many others, is written in technically gender-neutral language, but with men as the intended target. I would give high odds that when both are drunk, the women get a pass and the men get punished.

    I am not optimistic about the possible future social environment for my son. I guess it comes under the general wisdom that “if you think things are as bad as they can get, you have overlooked something.” I faced a presumption of guilt for most of my employment history. In addition, my son now faces a presumption of guilt in his dating activities. (I didn’t know how lucky I was.) I have advised him to consider dating only off-campus women so he will still be entitled to real legal due process.

    I did extremely well in my dealings with family law because I understood the law and used prenuptial contracts to protect myself against the default conditions that could have paid my exes huge amounts of money to divorce me. Note that family law usually throws out prenuptial contracts if the women did not get separate legal counsel. It is apparently too much to expect even an intelligent, well-educated, adult woman to be responsible for seeking legal counsel if she doesn’t understand the contract. Instead, this becomes the man’s responsibility to ensure that the woman understands what she is signing. Fortunately, I was aware of this idiocy and when my fiancees resisted seeing a lawyer, I refused to marry them until they did.

    But, things appear to be getting even worse for men. Society has not consistently decided whether or not women are fully competent adults who are responsible for their own voluntary actions and/or inactions. For example, British Columbia’s new (2013) family law removes the pesky problem of a man’s unwillingness to consent to marriage by simply declaring the men to be “spouses” against their will. It is apparently too much to expect that if a woman wants to be married she is responsible for getting a man’s consent? Of course, the purpose of the law is mostly about taking money. If it were about marriage, a responsible woman could just insist upon marriage or terminate the relationship. British Columbia has decided that “no doesn’t mean no” when a man refuses marriage.

    Until society consistently treats women equally (like men) as adults who are fully competent and responsible for their actions/inactions, people should be very careful about just assuming (absent verification) that women can be held responsible for anything in their interactions with men.

  2. Hey, I agree consent is a big deal and it matters. I just disagree that this law makes me feel like I can’t consent after a few drinks if I wanted without it being rape. I can consent ahead of time to try and be in compliance with the law but if I say yes again while intoxicated will that mean it’s rape now? And do I have to say yes every time a different act is requested? What happened to enjoying it and cutting loose with someone?

    I like having a few drinks so I can loosen up with someone. I’m normally shy, I have trouble feeling like there aren’t barriers sometimes when I’m sober. The idea that anyone can’t give enthusiastic consent just because they’re mildly intoxicated is completely absurd to me and a total buzzkill.

    This is my problem with these laws. It’s making it more and more dangerous to have sex. I suppose that’s great for people who promote abstinence only education or teach their children they’re used up pieces of gum afterwards but seriously!

    I’m a young gay male, I grew up with conservative baptists. I’ve had enough persecution without dealing with a bunch of immature college students who think regret means rape. People are promoting a PC crowd and constantly babying each other to a ridiculous extent lately… I don’t know how people are going to learn what real rape is if they’re constantly aiding and abetting victims of their own poor decisions. Of which I might note that I have several.

    I have “legally” been raped before on two occasions myself. However, instead of letting myself be a complete baby about it I just decided to dislike the person and assume some bloody responsibility for myself. I don’t have any STD’s, I’m not a traumatized baby, and I’m not some chewed up stick of gum because I regretted having sex with some guy.

    So, while I agree yes means yes… I disagree with the lack of personal responsibility. If I have a few drinks and a cute guy I’m flirting with also does (or even doesn’t)… And we both say yes – that is absolutely not rape. But hey, there’s nothing quite as capable of ruining the moment as legally having to say “I’d love to but I don’t trust that you won’t accuse me of rape later.”

  3. Simon please go away and stop pontisg on this blog. I am very open to opinions which differ from mine. Hence the blog. I notice you don’t have one and don’t have any other details about yourself logged on to the site. We’ve established now that you are a supporter of the BNP, we also know that you believe women are responsible for their own rapes. For me that pretty much invalidates the rest of your opinions. Sure I run a blog with a comment section, it also has a delete button. I am going to delete all your comments from now on because I’m not interested in your views or opinions.

Comments are closed.