r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/ArcherVisible5866 • 5h ago

Video New controversial Ad in Ireland about consent

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u/WingDairu 5h ago

This thread is full of people who really don't understand the point:

It's not telling you grandparent hugs are bad. It's telling you that ignoring other people's boundaries REGARDING THEIR OWN PHYSICAL BODY is bad.

This is especially important with kids, because it's important to teach kids that they're allowed to exercise bodily autonomy. If kids aren't taught that, it becomes far easier for someone to take advantage of them being trained to allow touching they don't want because they feel like they have to.

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u/Ecstatic_Meeting_894 4h ago

Hot take- people DO understand the point. They just don’t care. Many many people are out there who hear, “kids have bodily autonomy and deserve to practice consent and boundaries,” and get FURIOUS at the idea that they will not be able to hug and kiss the children in their family because they believe their request for affection (from family specifically) is more important than what kids want. They do not view children as small humans, they view children as a separate entity undeserving of boundaries, autonomy, etc. Many people who believe kids HAVE to give hugs are also the people who still think hitting kids is ok, that kids don’t need mental health services, that don’t empower kids with the tools to report abuse from other adults. The venn diagram is more often than not a circle

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u/notnatasharostova 2h ago

Threads about child sexual abuse are invariably filled with people chest-thumping about how eager they are to see pedophiles physically harmed or killed. Yet threads about consent education and bodily autonomy are filled with ridicule. It is saddening how much more eager we are to performatively punish abuse after the fact than we are to protect children from it in the first place.

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u/Imjusthonest2024 1h ago

This has nothing to do with sexual abuse. In fact, the people I see with this sort of "consent" talk are projecting their own trauma into the situation.

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u/notnatasharostova 1h ago

It has everything to do with sexual abuse, because children are significantly less likely to be sexually abused when they are taught that they are allowed to assert their own boundaries and refuse unwanted touch, especially against loved ones (who are statistically the most likely to perpetrate sexual abuse against them). The dynamic created by telling a child they do not have rights over their own body is precisely what predators seek out to keep their victims silent.