Sunday, April 1, 2012

Workshop and talks in Oldenburg: Consent

(under construction)

When: 21.4.2012, 11-13.30
Where: tbd Oldenburg
Language: Deutsch (with the possibility of English translation)




Do you want to talk about consent? (yes/no)
A WS on defining consent, saying yes, no, and defining your borders.
(Ann Antidote antidote@imensis.net)

Consent is present in many of our decisions - consciously or not. And its role in feminism and in the queer movement is quite central, due to several independent reasons, of which the explicit objective to create safe spaces and eventually build a safe community for all is not the least important. The way we deal with consent has repercusions in the community we live and ultimately shape. A society where personal and collective needs and borders are respected, is desirable, but...

...can we honestly say, about ourselves, that we say “no” on every occasion we need to? Hmmm, maybe not. Saying “no” is important, actually it’s vital, but saying “no” can be very difficult. There are several mechanisms which can make “saying no” quite difficult, like fear of rejection or retaliation, peer pressure, or even an entangled bundle of possible cultural reasons linked to expressing disagreement.

In this WS we will make an introduction and pragmatic term definition before, we, as a group working together, dive - in a hands-on approach - into what means to define borders, to say no, to say yes, what hinders us, what feelings do we associate with it. In this WS we will not aim at exhausting the theme consent, but rather raise awareness to what comes with it, from a personal and colective point of view. This WS is intended as a begining and a furtheninig of the consent discussion and not about giving finished answers about it.

We will have one or two practical exercises, we will analyse and summarise them together, and we will evaluate the role of knowing one´s borders in the communication negotiation process and the.expressing disagreement as a space/ act of personal empowerment and in last instance, of community shaping!

the topic is sensitive and is susceptible to trigger. There will be special communications rules and the discussion will be driven from a generalist point of view. Nevertheless, because of different personal sentitivities and possible triggers, I would kindly ask the participants to actively look after their borders

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