CASE showcases Digital Consent campaign
By Nikayla Goddard, May 21 2020 —
Though isolation practices are in place, that doesn’t mean that people have stopped dating or meeting new people online. The Consent Awareness and Sexual Education club (CASE) created a Digital Consent campaign to focus on different forms of digital consent and what it can look like.
CASE’s focus is on sexual assault prevention through targeting potential assaulters rather than potential victims, while also promoting sex positivity and sex education. The Digital Consent campaign continues to promote their values in the more tech-focussed world COVID-19 has brought.
“We still wanted to do something to finish the year off because we were also supposed to have a sex education conference, but in lieu of that, we thought we would focus on how consent is still important even when you’re not meeting people face to face,” explained CASE President Carly Jahelka.
The current executive team split into five teams of two, and each selected a topic or focus point on digital consent and what it looks like to them. The end result was Instagram and Facebook posts on topics such as Consent & Skype Sex, Ethical Porn and Snapchat Sexting and unsolicited nudes. Jahelka added that CASE has done many workshops and seminars on the UCalgary campus, so having a stronger online presence for their cause is also beneficial in reaching more than just university students.
“It’s just to bring awareness to consent and that consent can and should be online as well, not just in person, and that it looks like many different things,” Jahelka said.
CASE is also planning a collaboration with safe sex toy shop Sensuale Intimate Wellness to continue to promote healthy intimacy.
“They are an amazing business that is very inclusive, queer-friendly and focusses on more than just sex — focuses on healthy sex and healthy masturbation and all sorts of things that CASE agrees with because we are also a sex positive club,” Jahelka said.
While no further summer plans have been made yet beyond the Digital Consent campaign, Jahelka said next year’s executive team has some awesome ideas forthcoming for Fall. Next year’s executive team so far consists of Myles Nahal as Vice President, Tacia Tsimara as Internal, Sayo Ogunforowa as Communication Committee Head, Carly Jahelka as Education Facilitator, Gaby Martinez Torres and Mary Bogucka as Community Commissioner, Rayane Issa as Volunteer Manager and Rebecca Argenal as a Junior Executive for the Communication Committee. They are still looking to fill a few positions, including President, External, Operations and Finance, one Community commissioner position, Academic Committee Head, Rez Outreach, Fundraiser, Campaign Manager and Graphic Designer.