Published in 2023
271 pages
Chanel Contos is an Australian student and sexual consent activist. Contos became known globally in 2021, following an outpouring of responses to her request for young Australian women to report on their sexual assault experiences. She is the founder of Teach Us Consent and chair of The Global Institute for Women’s Leadership’s Youth Advisory Committee. In the 2021 Australian Human Rights Awards, Contos won the Young People’s Human Rights Medal. She was honoured as one of BBC’s 100 Women in 2022.
What is this book about?
The game-changing book about sex and consent that every woman – and man – should read
In 2021, Chanel Contos posted on Instagram asking people to share their stories of sexual assault during their schooling years. This post unexpectedly went viral and almost 7000 people sent in testimonies describing behaviour that constitutes rape. Virtually none of these instances were reported, and almost all of them were by people they knew.
How and why is this happening in an era of growing equality? Chanel Contos argues that when it comes to sex, we are still working with an outdated social contract that privileges men’s pleasure at the expense of women’s humanity.
Consent Laid Bare challenges the lingering inequality that reinforces this behaviour. It asks if consent is possible in a world where female sexuality has been hijacked by forces such as porn, patriarchy and male entitlement. It gives girls and women the encouragement to seek sex that is truly enjoyable and equips them with the information they need to properly consent. It asks boys and men to become advocates for sex centered around intimacy rather than fuelled by aggression.
It is a battle cry from a generation no longer prepared to stay silent.
