Bridgerton, The Devil Wears Prada and Star Wars would be slapped with an additional classification to mark they contain a lack of consent under a proposal by the not-for-profit education organisation Consent Labs.
The plan to petition Australia’s Classification Board for a new label – similar to those used for nudity or drug use – to denote a lack of consent in pieces of popular culture comes after New South Wales and Victoria passed affirmative consent laws.
A survey of more than 1,000 Australians commissioned by the organisation found that more than half of respondents were unable to recognise consent when seen on screen and one in four were unable to define it.
The executive director of Consent Labs, Angelique Wan, said showing non-consensual acts without noting it, and portraying those acts as funny or romantic, could normalise the behaviour.
“That lack of awareness or lack of recognition in terms of what consent looks like is concerning,” Wan said.
“There’s so much power in knowing what you’re watching, understanding what you’re watching.
“We’re not trying to cancel or censor any content with this campaign – you can still consume the content that you want to consume – but just understand that it’s for entertainment purposes.”
Wan said the risk in not calling out lack of consent was “continuing to perpetuate … that people don’t deserve to be asked what they want or how they feel”.
Among the scenes flagged by Consent Labs as concerning was a sex scene from the popular Netflix series Bridgerton, between characters Daphne and Simon, that results in a pregnancy.
Another was when the prince wakes the Sleeping Beauty in the 1950s Disney classic and when Christian kisses a very drunk Andy in The Devil Wears Prada.
The research also showed that 65% of respondents had never been taught about consent and of those who had, most had been informed at school or by parents.
Consent education and training has been widely discussed over recent years after work by survivor advocate Saxon Mullins and revelations made by the former Sydney private school student Chanel Contos about the alarming prevalence of sexual abuse in high schools, leading to the Teach Us Consent petition.
Wan said recent progress meant now was the time to push for the addition to the classification code.
“There’s been so much progress made in terms of society’s understanding around consent but there’s still definitely gaps in everyday Australians’ knowledge,” Wan said.
“It’s continuing to push the envelope on that progress.”
