Trauma-informed Consent Education: Under-standing the Grey Area of Consent Through the Experiences of Youth Trauma Survivors

Sexual consent education has emerged in re-cent years as the most popular method of preventing gender-based violence. Yet, the concept of consent used in much contemporary programming problematically oversimplifies sexual exploration and the power dynam-ics it is imbued with by asserting that consent is as simple as "Yes " or "No. " The messiness of sexual negoti-ation or the 'grey areas' of consent that youth may exper-ience are left unaddressed. By examining the experiences of youth trauma survivors through a trauma-informed lens, the limits to binary consent education become clear. I draw on empirical data from nine open-ended in-terviews with Canadian youth trauma survivors to demonstrate how a trauma-informed lens may be imple-mented in consent education. I argue that educators should include understandings of consent which falls outside the Yes/No binary in order to adequately address youth survivors' vulnerability to sexual (re)victimization. I examine how three of the psychosocial impacts of trauma, dissociation, hypersexuality, and struggles with acquiescence, refuse the binaristic model of consent and should be considered for trauma-informed consent edu-cation. While education alone cannot end rape culture, addressing the grey area of consent in consent education may help reduce preventable harm for survivors, as well as youth more broadly.