The website On s’écoute has widened its scope to include a new component that focuses on consent and sexual violence (SV) in the collegial sports environment. Titled On t’écoute (available in French only), this campaign allowed students and student athletes across the province to voice their understanding of and concerns about these topics. By installing video booths in Cegeps and universities, On s’écoute was able to gather feedback and use it to create a series of dynamic and informative videos.
Student & Student Athletes Give Their Impressions
The new campaign added seven videos to their website: 3 brief videos and 4 longer ones. While both explore various subjects, each one shines a light on situations and experiences that young athletes face or are familiar with. The videos also reference the painful yet true stories that were featured in the previous iteration of the website.
The longer videos examine SV from a critical and nuanced perspective and dive into often ignored elements such as the power dynamic between coaches and athletes, peer pressured intoxication, invalid consent, and what it means to be an active bystander.
The shorter videos act as teasers and are framed around questions and answers. The questions are related to topics such as “red flags” regarding coaches and athletes, sexual violences at parties, and the persisting misconceptions with consent.
These videos echo the current generation’s awareness of problematic relationships as well as the psychological repercussions of SV. While agreeing that things have gotten better in recent years, the students remind us that consent and sexual violence remain compelling subjects that need further analysis to be properly understood.
Training Videos For Better Comprehension And Taking Action
The website also added three training videos that tackle consent and sexual violence in collegial sports:
- Understanding sexual violence and consent in sport explains the particular nature of SV in sport, focusing on the power dynamics and how authority can be used as a form of coercive power.
- Breaking the silence: Disclosure and the impact of sexual violence on athletes details the consequences of SV on young athletes, as well as the importance of disclosing an incident and obstacles that can come up when seeking help.
- See, react, intervene: be an active bystander illustrates a common situation where athletes are too intoxicated to consent to sexual acts. This training explains why it can be difficult, and sometimes discouraged, to intervene in such situations. The training also offers concrete examples of interventions that are adapted to the sports and academic environment.
