Public outcry over sex consent poster location

A BILLBOARD poster erected along a main roadway in Castlebar has led to a public outcry.

Listeners to the Tommy Marren Show on Midwest Radio initiated a campaign expressing their disappointment with the poster, which is part of a promotion headed by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre.

They made the point that it was unsuitable at such a busy location as Ballinrobe Road in the county town, which is passed on a regular basis by parents bringing their young children to school.

Now Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has apologised to any parents to which the poster caused offence.

But the key message in the poster (sex without consent is rape) is designed to start a national conversation on the need for respectful relationships between men and women.

Ms. O’Malley-Dunlop said the centre’s campaign is based on research carried out by the students union at Trinity College, Dublin, last December which revealed that 31% of women surveyed experienced unwanted sexual contact.

One in 13 respondents – 8% of women and 7% of men – reported having been stalked or subject to obsessive behaviour. Some 42% of female students and 8% of male students said that they had experienced verbal harassment, while one in 20 respondents said they have been physically mistreated by a partner.

The study also highlighted a worrying lack of awareness about sexual consent campaigns, with only 31% of women and 32% of men saying they had heard of any consent campaigns before.  

'We wanted to get the point across that the unsolicited pornographic messages that many students receive on  smart phones are disrespectful and dangerous and how respect is so important in all good sexual relationship. It is essential for people to start talking about these matters,' said Ms. O’Malley-Dunlop.

When asked if it would have been more appropriate to have erected the posters in the grounds of third level institutes rather than on public roads, she said there was never any intention to cause offence to anybody but the debate needed to happen.

The poster campaign has been supported by the National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence.