Consent is truly the most important aspect of any sexual encounter. And with the #MeToo movement, consent is at the forefront of our minds. One Argentinian company, Tulipán, tried to address the issue by creating what they’re calling a “consent condom” that comes in packaging that requires four hands to be opened, the idea being that you can be sure that every sexual interaction is a consensual one. Uhhhhh…
¿Por qué esta cajita solo se puede abrir de a dos? Porque así funciona el consentimiento en las relaciones. Todo tiene que ser de a dos. 🤚🤚#PlacerConsentido pic.twitter.com/QEUE5aNAWE
— Tulipán Argentina (@TulipanARG) March 27, 2019
Except that condoms aren’t the problem. Because the real issue, which goes so much deeper, is that people need to learn to communicate with their partners about what is and what isn’t okay.
Articles about the new condom were tweeted by both CBS and the New York Post, and people jumped in in droves to point out the obvious problems.
https://twitter.com/blaec_francis/status/1116030146279084034
https://twitter.com/KellyShibari/status/1115683458397769728
https://twitter.com/YoSoySteele/status/1116395511718776832
Bloody hell. Making condoms harder to use isn’t going to encourage consent!!
— sianushka (@sianushka) April 10, 2019
They really solved the problem with this one.
— Victor Cass (@Victor_Cass) April 7, 2019
Let’s get real. The reason this exists is so someone can say “but they helped me open the condom!” Even if they withdrew consent after opening it. Even if the person opened it by themselves.
— Soft Barbie™ (@juleandtheholos) April 10, 2019
How many rapists practise safe sex I wonder
— M̷à̢͘r͝k̵̨^͢B͠ast͢͏a̢͝r͢͟d̶ (@Mark_Bastard) April 8, 2019
I’m sure this holds up in court.
— Blockchain Ultra HD (@KerbonautJeb) April 8, 2019
what fucking dude thought this was a good idea?
— “Celia” (@_celia_bedelia_) April 10, 2019
I know this is probs just a way to try and go viral but:
1. This dumbs down the idea of healthy communication re: sex in a harmful way
2. It's the condom equivalent of dudes asking for recorded videos of consent
3. Putting on a condom ≠ automatic consent of all sexual activity https://t.co/Xuq58MKJlW— Julia Pugachevsky 🇺🇦 (@jaypugz) April 10, 2019
https://twitter.com/MoiraDonegan/status/1116072821296455680
https://twitter.com/ebruenig/status/1116035862754668544
Cue the creation of a billion dollar "consent" industry when really people just need to fundamentally respect each other and communicate.
"We'll get to that part after we're done selling you consent gimmicks" https://t.co/kz9NVLPgOz
— Absurdistwords (@absurdistwords) April 11, 2019
As was mentioned, there’s no way that making a condom hard to use is going to lead to consent. It’s amazing that this condom even got made, because it’s just so gimmicky. It’s great that more and more people are joining the international conversation about consent, but this ain’t it.
h/t: CBS News