No sex talk please, we’re Irish teens

Irish teenagers can’t talk about sex never mind find the confidence to refuse or report unwanted sex, according to a new report.

The young people said they do not expect to make or receive verbal requests for sex and so consent to sex is largely “unspoken” meaning they find violations hard to define. The study found that most young people had drunk alcohol before sex and this often meant that victims of non-consensual sex felt uneasy and under confident about reporting unwanted advances.

Many young people also held a very narrow opinion of what constitutes sexual assault believing that it was only vaginal rape. It also found young people still have a highly stereotyped notion of sex, where it’s expected that sex is instigated by the man while the woman is the “gatekeeper”.