BY SABRINA TO

The Federal Government’s controversial ‘Moving the Line’ consent education video was pulled on April 20, a day after release, in response to public outrage.

Released as part of ‘The Good Society: Respect Matters’ program, the advertisement sought to educate young students about consent and respectful relationships, yet it received strong criticism and backlash from Australians.

The video featured a young couple sharing milkshakes before the girl smears the beverage over her boyfriend’s face, forcing him to drink it to illustrate a metaphor of consent.

Media teacher and board member at Australian Teachers of Media Victoria (ATOM), Victoria Giummarra said she was “disappointed in the way the Federal Government had gone about discussing consent”.

“It didn’t seem overly relevant to the age group they were intending it for,” Ms Giummarra said.

“It’s confusing, it talks about things like ‘the action zone’... it doesn’t actually refer to anything to do with relationships or sexual interactions,” she said.

“What the government is trying to do is create an education program around issues relating to serious things like sexual assault and consent and rape.

“Nowhere are those things mentioned anywhere in the package and I think that is quite irresponsible.”

Ms Giummarra said the ad would be quite difficult to use as an educational resource in classrooms due to the “watered down language” used in the ad.

“I can imagine watching it with a class and it being all about milkshakes and suddenly this ‘can I touch your butt’ line would be something the kids laugh at.”

“It’s like an explicit reference of a sexual act but it almost feels like a joke because it’s thrown in so randomly,” she said.

Year 11 high school student Sarah Baker was frustrated by the indirect and complaisant approach toward the discussion of consent and sex education.

“They’re trying to show people that they are ‘hip’ and conscious of what’s happening, rather than really address the culture around consent and sex education,” she said.

Ms Baker said the “infantile and childish language trivialises the subject matter, and needlessly dances around the subject a lot”.

“Using these vague metaphors, like milkshakes and pizza, they are being quite flippant and indirect,” she said.

“It needs to be direct and it needs to be targeted because of the problem that is present."

In response to the government ad's confusing messaging, Australian feminist writer Clementine Ford partnered with independent creative agency The Royals to distribute a two-minute social media video, which highlights and explains the topic of consent.

On her Instagram post, Ms Ford highlights the importance of consent being “an ongoing conversation with respect at its core”, rather than milkshakes or shifting lines.

The “Let’s have a conversation about consent! with Clementine Ford” video has generated more than 5000 likes on Twitter and 775,000 views on Instagram, as well as tremendous support and positive feedback from the public, encouraging discussion about consent and sex education in Australia. 

 https://www.instagram.com/tv/COJcXPRBzKs/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link