How consent isn’t always about sexual consent.

The word consent means “to agree to something; to allow something to happen; agreement; permission “. However, when we think of the word consent we tend to relate it to sexual activity/ intimacy. In recent years, the #Metoo movement has spread a lot of awareness about ensuring that sexual contact is comfortable, safe, and consensual for everyone and has generated some much-needed conversation about what consent really looks like. Many websites, pages, and blogs have also spoken about consent in terms of sex and have submitted to the fact that if clear, voluntary, coherent, and ongoing permission is not granted by all participants it’s sexual assault. However, is consent really just limited to sexual intimacy? Consent is about navigating personal boundaries, having the right to choose what you’re comfortable with, and treating others respectfully. It is quite simply about relating to other people through clear and kind communication.

Consent also looks like this:

-Asking for permission to photograph or videotape someone

-Taking permission before publicly sharing someone else’s personal information via social media or any other platform

-Consent regarding anything involving someone’s time, personal space, money, traumas, commodities and

sexual agency

-Not pressurizing someone to have a discourse on a particular subject

-Consent regarding non-sexual physical touch: hugging, kissing, tickling, et cetera right from a child to an old person

Nonsexual touch is a tricky space to navigate because our society/culture accords some kind of leniency in terms of touch and even considers it as a necessary measure for polite conduct. However, putting in the effort to ascertain every participant’s comfort level to make them feel safe, valued, heard, and respected adds to the depth of personal-professional bonds. The more we ask for consent in our daily lives, the easier it is to ask for and understand consent during our most intimate and vulnerable moments, thereby initiating better interaction between humans and thus helping in establishing bodily autonomy. Intellectual education about nonsexual touch and consent implants the fundamental concept of asking for consent and denying it or accepting it confidently no matter who is asking for it with the best or worst of intentions.

Consent begins with a few simple questions like “Can I __?” and could be the key factor in making the world safer, more communicative, and equitable. Its effect would ultimately trickle down in the form of reduction in sexual violence, however, asking for consent would be a mere means to end sexual violence. It would also alter the way we view sexual interactions because any form of touch would be regarded as a privilege and not as a right. Everyone has a different perception of things and their comfort level with various things differs thus asking for consent in general matters would in-still a sense of security in us. Society has engrained the wrong idea in their minds based on their conservative and narrow view of sexual/non-sexual consent and they’ve become submissive to the false notion that asking for consent would kill warmth, closeness, and intimacy in relationships. However, more realistically it would make the world a safer and comfortable space.

---