Over the past few years, the issue of rape and consent has become one of the world's most hotly debated topics. From high-profile rape cases like footballer Ched Evans to college campuses across the US and UK, people are fast getting a re-education on what constitutes 'rape' and, just importantly, what 'consent' means.
BBC Three, as part of their Breaking The Mould series, have decided to explore just how well-educated Britain's young people are on the subject with their new documentary I_s This Rape? Sex On Trial_. 'The purpose of the show was to explore young people's ideas around consent,' Says Will Best, the presenter. 'It's amazing how little people know, and how little *I *knew before I started the show.'
To find out what young peoples think consent is, the BBC took 24 16-18 year olds, both boys and girls, away for the weekend to investigate. 'We spent two days debating those issues with the help of a drama that the BBC created specifically for the show' explains Will. 'The drama depicted a specific sort of scenario with a boy and a girl at a party – a situation that lots and lots of young people relate to.' During and after watching the drama, the teenagers debated whether what they had seen was rape. While the show is on TV, you too will be able to contribute to the debate at home and, in the end, actually vote on what you think happened.
So, how did the production team go about creating this drama for the teenagers (and you at home) to be shown? It was put together with help from a barrister who has a lot of experience in these cases. 'Nothing was lifted directly from real-life cases,' Assures Will. 'But everything that was featured in the drama was typical of real-life cases. This kind of incident isn't a rare or extreme example – it's how a lot of these cases go.'
Because therein lies the problem with our confusion over what consent is. 'When a lot of people think of rape they think of a girl being dragged down and alley and her saying "no" to a stranger and it's very clear-cut (who is guilty).' Says Will. 'But those kind of incidents are extremely rare. The example we see in the drama; where they know each other, they're at a party and drink's involved – those sorts of scenarios are much more common. So we definitely didn't throw stuff in just to provoke debate – the reality itself is enough to provoke debate.'
Understandably, Will doesn't want to give away too much about what the teenagers thought were until you guys have watched the drama for yourselves at home but one thing he and the production team were expecting was a huge amount of confusion over the definintions of 'rape' and 'consent'. 'We definitely weren't surprised about how unsure people were about the law and about what they'd seen.' He says. 'Some of the reactions were initially stronger than we had perhaps expected. But that just made for better debate. We discussed it all weekend – we didn't stop for like, 48 hours and, by the end, everyone was emotionally exhausted.'
An issue that keeps rearing it's ugly head in cases like this is victim blaming; from police posters enouraging girls not to wear short skirts to avoid sexual assault to men blaming drunk girls not knowing what they were doing, for far too long, society has looked to the victim of a rape crime for answers rather than the perpetrator. 'It's hugely deep-rooted' agrees Will when we ask him why the victims, who are more often than not female, are held accountable for their actions in their own sexual assaults. 'It goes back hundreds of years to a patriachal society where traditionally women have less power in every facet of society. I guess nowadays it's that those sort of attitudes persist as a hangover from less tolerant and accepting times. I don't know why victim blaming persists the way it does.'
One thing Will did realise though was that teenagers are more open to the debate than a lot of older people might think, 'The cool thing about it was that you'd think there would be more of that sort of thing (victim blaming) but the young people were engaging and gave me hope. It's a complicated issues but young people are much more well equipped to deal with it than older generation give them credit for.'
So, what needs to happen? 'There's definitely more need for things to be done in terms of education.' Says Will. 'I think more needs to be done in terms of getting people to think about what they're doing and the implications that they might have. I think people need to realise that things they might have previously thought were "a bit naughty" are actually illegal and can have serious consequences.'
'Consent is a two way thing you know,' He continues. 'It's encouraging people to communicate more. The word "miscommunication" got used a lot during the discussion and that is a key education piece that needs to happen; helping young people communicate better around issues that are difficult to talk to about, like sex. That, for me, feels like the key thing to take away.'
Is This Rape? Sex On Trial is on BBC Three on Monday 2 November at 9PM
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Follow Jess on Twitter @Jess_Commons
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.