Chanel Contos has addressed the National Press Club, speaking about the power of consent education and the potential for Australia to be a world leader in preventing sexual violence if we take a whole-community approach.
The Founder of Teach Us Consent said effective consent education in schools was “an extremely efficient allocation of resources” to prevent sexual violence in the community.
“We can channel minimal resources into the whole of the community throughout their life, rather than large amounts of resources into an individual that shows risks at a young age,” Contos said in her speech.
Contos spoke about the national statistic that is frequently cited in the media, that 1 in 5 women since the age of 15 have been sexually assaulted in Australia. That’s 20 per cent of women.
“I’ve heard so many times in my life, that one in five women since the age of 15 have been sexually assaulted. The more I work in this space, the more I don’t believe this,” Contos said.
“The statistic feels wrong, feels hollow, and underwhelming compared to reality. It doesn’t account for all of these teens whose first sexual experience when they were 13 or 14 years old was void of consent, and it emits the atrocious number of Australians who have been forced to survive child sexual abuse.”
Entitled opportunists
Contos went on to describe the most common type of rapist we have in Australia, as defined by forensic psychologists – “entitled opportunists”.
“Entitled opportunists are rapists who have high social competence and commit sexual assault on impulse. Their offences are predatory acts that are unplanned and they exhibit poor self control,” she explained. “Little anger is exhibited and minimal physical violence, often none. Which means it is often sexual coercion that leads them to sexually assaulting someone. Namely, pressuring, tricking, threatening or forcing someone in a non-physical way, or using drugs and alcohol to make it so that the victim cannot consent.”
“Their motivating factor does not come from a place of malice or sadism but their belief and entitlement to immediate sexual gratification.”
“These types of rapists are confident, powerful, and opportunistic in other aspects of their lives, which are all values that our society highly regards in men whilst the other three types of rapists may be ostracised due to in society due to their poor social skills, this type of rapist can very well be perceived as a normal and nice person in all other aspects of life.”
Contos said this type of rapist almost always perpetrates rape for the first time as a teenager, and they are often unaware of the fact that they have sexually assaulted someone until they are older, and have had the opportunity to learn about consent (if they ever learn it at all).
She also said the legal system is not equipped to prosecute these types of rapists.
“Entitled opportunistic rapists make up the vast majority of convicted rapists,” she said.
The good news, Contos said, is that for this type of rapist, their potential for sexual violence can be prevented by education on consent, and raising boys to be empathetic.
“Generally speaking, these types of rapists do not want to actively hurt anyone,” she said. “But that does not mean that they do not do that, when their entitlement for instant sexual gratification outweighs their empathy for the person in front of them.”
Contos said stealthing – the act of removing a condom during sex without consent – is a perfect example of how easily sexual violence can be perpetrated by young men who exhibit that lack of empathy.
“The criminalisation of stealthing is a natural progression, after achieving the objectives of the Teach Us Consent campaign, because it is an act of normalised violence that occurs at scale in a rape culture,” she said.
“Because of deeply ingrained male sexual entitlement, it occurs at an unknown scale without accountability.”
The impact of pornography
Contos said that pornography is currently the main form of sex education for young people in Australia, with 60 per cent of 11 to 13 year olds having watched porn.
“Learning how to have sex from watching pornography, it’s like learning how to drive by watching Formula One. The world would be a very dangerous place for drivers if this was the case, and anecdotes I hear daily reflect the treacherous landscape to girls and women when pornography is used to sex education,” Contos said.
“Choking has become increasingly prevalent in young men’s sexual behaviour, including in young men who do not have a violent bone in their body.”
“It is difficult to truly understand the true societal effects of pornography, as researchers and scientists have failed to find a control group of men who have never watched.”
“At what point does the mass consumption of pornography particularly among youth, become a mass form of grooming that normalises sexual violence?”
Where to from here?
In her speech, Contos said that the vast majority of sexual violence in Australia is preventable, and that Australia has the potential to be a world leader in gender equality if we make it a priority.
Due to her advocacy, consent education is now mandated in the Australian curriculum, but Contos said the implementation stage is critical and said it is incumbent upon the government to “build the capabilities of the next generation of teachers to be transformative actors in respectful relationships”.
“In terms of education, we need consent and respectful relationships education to span more than Kindy to Year 10. Years 11 and 12 are important for sexual development, and the conversation must continue throughout them,” she said.
“We need more comprehensive porn literacy to counteract the indoctrinating force that’s distorting the sexual landscape for young people.”
“We need to use Australia’s robust education system to implement changes at all points. From a structural perspective, we must provide more options for reporting that sit alongside the current police system.”
If you are concerned about your behaviour, or about someone using violence, call Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.
If you or someone you know is in need of help due to sexual assault or family and domestic violence contact 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732
In an emergency call 000.