paulaethans

I grew up spending hours dressing my Barbies, agonizing over the perfect shoes and brushing their hair with that tiny comb. Hell, I had a life size playhouse dedicated to Barbies.

I also grew up yearning to play any sport that my brothers played. I remember once I was so excited to join my older brother’s soccer practice, it took getting smoked in the head THREE times before my dad could convince me to just watch the scrimmage. (I was a stubborn six year old.)

My younger years were filled with hairbands, sports, dress up, mud, dolls, and toy trucks. I was lucky to grow up in a home that promoted all types of play.

But a lot of kids don’t get the ...

“Sixty percent of females have experienced rape/attempted rape/harassment/sexual coercion during their college years.” – Charlene Senn, psychologist at the University of Windsor.

The Canadian Federation of Students created the “No means No” campaign two decades ago. Since that time there have been countless Take Back the Night marches, sexual assault awareness programs, and rape culture conferences. Yet, today, Canadian citizens still seem to be baffled by the concept of consent.

‘What is considered sexual assault?’ ‘But she was wearing a miniskirt.’ ‘What if they are dating?’

We, as a society, have failed. How has such an important topic like consent fallen to the wayside in our educational systems? Why have we neglected to address this topic in our sexual education programs?

Universities, high schools, ...

Feminism has a PR problem.