Channel 4\u2019s Consent<\/a> is a one-off drama that was created in response to a chilling report released in June 2021.<\/p>\n The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) found that \u201959 per cent of girls and young women aged 13-21 have been subjected to sexual harassment at school or college\u2019, with independent schools, like the fictional sixth form featured in Consent, regularly mentioned in the review.<\/span><\/p>\n And to heap misery upon misery, <\/span>many of those girls and young women haven\u2019t spoken out against or reported their trauma because it\u2019s considered \u201ca normal experience\u201d.<\/p>\n When you\u2019re juggling both academic and social pressures, taking on an endeavour as all-consuming and high-risk as toppling the patriarchy can often be a bridge too far.<\/p>\n But in Emma Dennis-Edwards\u2019s drama, <\/span>one victim of sexual violence does stick her head above the parapet.<\/span><\/p>\n Scholarship student Natalie, who is part of the first wave of female students to be admitted into the previously all-male college, is raped by her classmate Archie at his 18th birthday party. The pair enjoyed a fun, flirty relationship prior to that night, but his actions, which also included filming the rape and sharing the footage with his friends, put a swift end to that.<\/span><\/p>\n There are three strands to Natalie\u2019s ordeal: the rape itself, the identity of the perpetrator, and Archie\u2019s insistence that he\u2019s not guilty of the crime he\u2019s committed.<\/p>\n \u201cI would never hurt anyone, ever,\u201d he says to his sister, his tone genuine, his cheeks tear-stained. He\u2019s entirely in denial. The reality doesn\u2019t chime with his sense of self; and it doesn\u2019t align with his perception of what it means to be a rapist.<\/p>\n And therein lies the crux of Consent.<\/p>\n Natalie evidently had a crush on Archie and would have admitted it freely to anyone who asked, but at no point did she agree to have sex with him.<\/p>\n Those words were never spoken. She didn\u2019t say yes.<\/p>\n Archie, however, had interpreted her behaviour towards him \u2013 the dancing, the prolonged eye contact \u2013 as the green light to \u201ctake care of business\u201d, as his friend so eloquently put it.<\/p>\n But those words were never spoken. She didn\u2019t say yes because she was unable to. Natalie was incapacitated and as such, she was denied a basic human right: her consent.<\/p>\n When Natalie informs the school, Archie\u2019s deep-pocketed parents threaten legal action and as a result, the incident is swept under the rug, leaving her with one option: to leave.<\/p>\n As a working class Black woman, the hurdles she\u2019s overcome and those that await her are far greater than those her predominantly white, wealthy, male peers will ever experience. Her scholarship was a rare opportunity to level the playing field marginally, and it was ripped out of her grasp.<\/p>\n Archie, by contrast, not only remains at the school, completely unscathed by the incident, he receives an academic award and an offer to study at Oxbridge. He is one of the school\u2019s \u201cbrightest\u201d after all, as noted by he headmaster. Men like Archie always land on their feet.<\/p>\n But in the closing moments of Consent, that looks set to change.<\/p>\n When Archie\u2019s footage is sent to Natalie by one of his former friends, she has the ammunition she needs to contact the police. We\u2019re not privy to what happens after she makes that call, but one would hope justice is done.<\/p>\n It\u2019s far from a satisfying ending, however. It doesn\u2019t change the fact that she has been raped, the scars of which she\u2019ll bear for a lifetime; it doesn\u2019t alter the fact that her best friend chose not to believe her, or that the school failed in its duty of care to Natalie; it doesn\u2019t erase the shame she was forced to carry because of one man\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n It also highlights a horrifying reality: without that video, Natalie\u2019s truth would have remained buried. She would have been yet another footnote in the annals of a history littered with the stories of women who haven\u2019t been protected or believed.<\/p>\n But now, she has a chance to reclaim her voice, a luxury that many aren\u2019t afforded right here, in the real world.<\/p>\n For countless women, that\u2019s an impossibility, a dream wrapped up in a nightmare. But through dramas like Consent, the hope for better burns bright.<\/p>\n For information and support, visit the\u00a0NHS website<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Rape Crisis England & Wales<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Consent airs tonight on Channel 4 at 10pm. It\u2019s available to stream now on All4. <\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n The one-off drama details a chilling reality for girls and young women. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":29859,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/why-the-ending-of-channel-4s-consent-is-so-disturbing-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/why-the-ending-of-channel-4s-consent-is-so-disturbing-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/why-the-ending-of-channel-4s-consent-is-so-disturbing-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/why-the-ending-of-channel-4s-consent-is-so-disturbing-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/why-the-ending-of-channel-4s-consent-is-so-disturbing-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/why-the-ending-of-channel-4s-consent-is-so-disturbing-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/02\/why-the-ending-of-channel-4s-consent-is-so-disturbing-2048x1366.jpg",2048,1366,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The one-off drama details a chilling reality for girls and young women.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/29858"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/02\/Consent-Channel-4-main-cast-0ef6825.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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