Let me paint you a picture. It is the Monday of Consent is Sexy week, and the party is bumping. The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) area of the University Centre atrium is devoted to a sexy info fair, including such organizations as the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre, the Ottawa Legal Clinic, Pink Triangle Services, Campus Security, The Coalition for a Sexual Assault Support Centre, Foot Patrol, and the Graduate Students Association. The smell of sex positivity filled the air as folks filtered through, talking to organization reps and collecting free swag ranging from buttons to t-shirts to travel mugs.
The Graduate Students’ Association was distributing material from the Canadian Federation of Students-created ‘No Means No’ campaign, which has become the predominant sexual assault awareness campaign on campuses since its creation 10 years ago. It’s a solid campaign with a clear message, made by students for students to be customizable to fit any campus.
Of course, none of of that information managed to stop CUSA vice-president (finance) Michael De Luca from jumping on the war path. He attempted to confiscate No Means No materials and threatened sanctions against multiple service centre co-ordinators, but promptly left after those involved refused to co-operate. Too bad he came back the next day and threatened to write up multiple co-ordinators because one of their handsome and charismatic volunteers (yours truly) was running a table for them in the atrium while wearing a No Means No t-shirt.
Oh my God. I cannot tolerate this much partisanship.
First of all, De Luca is the vice-president (finance). Finance. Could someone please explain to me how that qualifies him to make judgments on social issue campaigns? Nope? In that case, could some one tell me where he gets off telling the GSA or his service centre co-ordinators what anti-violence campaigns to use?
The obvious elephant in the room is that De Luca is targeting “No Means No” because it is a CFS campaign, and he has a vendetta against the CFS. That is an entirely different issue. He is impeding sexual assault awareness during this week and in doing so is putting petty political games ahead of targets of sexual violence. I mean, honestly. Have your issues with the CFS if you want. They’re not perfect. But can you please think critically and analyze something before you oppose it?
A lot of folks have this romantic attraction to the idea of a grassroots campaign, to the degree where folks argue that it’s always the best approach. This is the case with CUSA and its support of Consent is Sexy. Frankly, arguing that one idea is always the best approach borders on ignorant. Grassroots campaigns are great, and a lot of them work, but they’re not the only valid option. The success of a campaign is not contingent on the source or context of its creation. It is contingent on the content of its framework, the execution on the ground, and the ability to customize both of the prior to fit your environment. If they content and execution are strong and properly tailored to your context, your campaign will succeed, regardless of if it was written in a boardroom or in the back of a children’s menu at a diner. Consent is Sexy, for example, is not a Carleton-specific grassroots campaign. It’s been run in the past at the University of Ottawa, as well as other post-secondary institutions Ottawa-wide.
No Means No was designed with a clear, concise message, and with ample room for students to customize it to your particular campus. It is perfect? No, but no campaign will cover everything. What it does it combat the pressing issue of date rape and sexual violence by explaining the concept of consent in a way that is easy to understand. Partisan politics should never come before helping victims of sexual assault. By actively impeding No Means No purely because it is a CFS campaign, De Luca seems to be missing the point.
– Riley Evans,
second-year political science
