Culture of consent Article and photos by Megan Magnole
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n the wake of the #MeToo movement, many students and others are wrestling with the ethics of consent in sexual situations. Fortunately, there’s a course that can help them unpack the dynamics of consent in such circumstances: “Yeses and Noes: The Ethics of Consent.” The course was offered at FSU Valencia in the 2019 Summer II session and is offered on the Tallahassee campus during the regular academic year. On both campuses, it is taught by Dr. Tracie Mahaffey, an associate teaching professor and the director of undergraduate studies in FSU’s philosophy department. Originally, Mahaffey proposed and planned a course that would focus on the ethics of consent in medical, sexual, and legal situations. But then the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke in 2017. “This is where philosophy and real life come together,” Mahaffey says. So she revised the course plan to focus heavily on sexual consent and how it affects college students today.
“This is where philosophy and real life come together.” — Tracie Mahaffey
“Consent has this moral magic to it,” Mahaffey says. “You take something that the very same action is not OK, and when you consent to it, that action becomes OK—simply because you said yes.” Mahaffey unpacks this point by explaining the four main components of consent: competence, information disclosure, voluntariness, and intention. “You have to be competent,” she says. “You have to have enough information to make the decision that you’re making. Your decision has to be voluntary—so you can’t be compelled or coerced or manipulated.” Mahaffey then explains the fourth condition: intention. “When we consent to something, we consent under a certain description, whether we make it clear or not,” she says. “So if someone asks to borrow my car, and I say yes, I assume I don’t have to say ‘But If you plan to use it in the commission of a crime, like you’re going to rob a bank and use it as the getaway car, that’s not OK.’ ” In the beginning of the course, students get the general idea of what qualifies as consent and what to look for in different kinds of social situations or relationships—whether platonic, professional, or sexually intimate. While Mahaffey has taught the course on FSU’s main campus, teaching the course in Valencia adds a fresh element, allowing her students to reflect on how they can deal with cross-cultural dynamics of consent while studying in another country.
Tracie Mahaffey holds a group discussion with her students in the Summer 2019 Ethics of Consent course offered in Valencia.
20 Nomadic Noles // Summer 2019
