The Australian government spent $3.7 million dollars on a website for schools to use in life education. Here's the egregious consent video that has now been pulled from the site following public outcry. Enjoy.
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The Australian government's milkshake consent video
- Thread starter Kastenessen
- Start date
Probably. You know the ones that call people snowflakes are the snowflakiest.
Veronica looks like one of my friends and I can't unsee it.
OP
OP
The opposite. There may be a cultural difference at play here, but for most it feels extremely puritanical and avoids even mentioning the word sex. This was targeted at 16-18 year olds.
Having the focus be on the perpetrator and pushing the idea that the relationship can be repaired seems off. Various journalists have commented that it echoes some of the MRA garbage.
A video like this for schools would almost always be accompanied with a structured module with learning activities. Outside that context it understandably looks weird.
It was criticised by sexual assault prevention campaigners for being cutesy and simplistic.
www.abc.net.au
The video has been pulled.
www.abc.net.au
Milkshakes, tacos and consent: New government video slammed as confusing and concerning
New national education materials designed to teach school-aged children about consent, using examples related to tacos, milkshakes and going for a swim, are slammed by campaigners for "trivialising a serious issue".
www.abc.net.au
The video has been pulled.
Milkshake consent video pulled amid mounting political backlash over 'woeful' campaign
Following widespread criticism, the federal government has removed a video that used a metaphor about a milkshake to try to teach children about consent.
www.abc.net.au
I'm not sure how you would raise the issue with children unless you basically give them the real deal talk and bake it into sex education directly. But I suppose that's why I'm not a child educator.
I mean it is kind of crude and almost comes off as satire. This wacky comedic metaphor for consent is what they spent millions of dollars producing and it shouldn't be hard to see why its not working for everyone.
Oh, I would have thought that the video was aimed at younger audinces. And also at that it isn't *only* about sex. But I guess I could where they are coming from. It may come up as something too childish for 16-18yo? It is still a good video about friendship.
Like I could see this video for 14yo, as a basis for a real talk about sex and consent a couple of years later, when they are older. But if this is it, it doesn't go into the problem enough.
God damn, poor Oscar having to drop that brutal truth on Veronica just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Should have left when the nuts came out
After reading all day in the news about how bad this is, finally watching it from this thread I didn't find it the worst thing of all time. However, I don't think it works for its intended purpose by itself, and would really need a competent teacher/guide and supplementary material because the video doesn't actually explain things or go too in depth. The aesthetic/tone feels like something a marketing agency would come up with. It seems like it's dancing around the topic a bit too much and feels unfocused.
Then again I'm not an expert or a teacher, so perhaps it's working on a level I don't appreciate?
Then again I'm not an expert or a teacher, so perhaps it's working on a level I don't appreciate?
Ironic because to get milk, cows are impregnated without consent, the calves are taken away at birth without consent, painful machinery extracts milk without consent and then the life of the cow is ended at a fraction of her natural lifespan without consent.
Under the Fed government's "Respect Matters" program, the concept of consent isn't introduced until year 10. Probably due to the fact that the ruling party in Australia consists in large part of fundies.
There is also a lot more context to this. Presently, the Australian population has a low tolerance for "cutesy" approaches to consent due to a series of high profile sexual assaults and (alleged) rapes which occurred at the hands of Parliamentary staffers and even a Federal minister (in fact, the former AG). There has also been a wide-sweeping campaign among the private schools to properly teach consent after numerous students at several high profile schools complained of sexual harassment and/or assault.
The Australian PM's response has been largely tone-deaf, if not outwardly offensive. Apart from the fact that his party is harbouring an alleged rapist, his own response has been to either deflect blame or repeatedly refer to his wife and daughters as a source of empathy for some reason. He's also a not-so-closeted happy-clappy religious nut in his own right.
Edit: I posted a thread about this a while back - https://www.resetera.com/threads/there-is-a-metoo-reckoning-going-on-in-australian-federal-politics-right-now-disclaimer-sexual-assault-and-suicide-references-contained-herein.389480/
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Thanks, I appreciate the context. It definetly doesn't look good knowing all of this.
Adding to the above, our Australian of the Year is a woman named Grace Tame, who after her own grooming and rape in high school has since become a huge advocate for survivors and for the system to do better, in education and prevention, recognising behaviours, reframing the usual victim blaming and supporting survivors and letting them speak their truth (SOme Australian states, like Grace Tame's home state, legally would not allow victims to speak publically of the crimes committed against them). So, she was recognised about 3 months ago, and has since basically...been yelling at our leaders for the above context ever since.
Haha, fair point.
Consent video should not be about milkshakes. It should not be a metaphor.
Fun fact: "The Good Society" campaign has links to an American anti-porn "charity" run by Mormons, and even explicitly links to a vehemently anti-porn video.
Oh, and the campaign, I shit you not, cost $3.8m. Fucking hell.
It really does feel like they wanted to do something like this but they needed to not rile up the fundies and the MRAs.
But yeah, it's not a surprise that a "sex ed" video that stealthily promotes rape apologists was commissioned by this government.
Oh, and the campaign, I shit you not, cost $3.8m. Fucking hell.
It really does feel like they wanted to do something like this but they needed to not rile up the fundies and the MRAs.
But yeah, it's not a surprise that a "sex ed" video that stealthily promotes rape apologists was commissioned by this government.
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Now this is great. Setting it in simple, transferable, reasonable terms.
Bare in mind this is coming out of essentially a *MeeToo* movement involving our current government, who has chosen to cover up and not allow any official investigation into anyone involved with one case involving rape of a 16 year old that happened many many years ago, another with members ejaculating on women members desks and sharing it with male members and other shit, and the Prime Minster ignoring our women's march for Justice involving these issues....Its fucking hollow and you see why people might be pissed about the government not doing shit or saying anything and simply putting out a average as hell consent video, literally the lowest fucking effort they could have done.
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I was going to say: it cost them $3.7M to steal and remake someone else's content, dilute and twist the message in the process?
Their attempts to be 'cute' with it make it far less effective than the original.
I suppose things are different everywhere, but even fourteen seems far too late to be having these conversations - let alone "a couple of years later". At least, that's how things were when I was at school.
I would have thought it was even more important to start having these conversations at a younger age, considering the type of content anyone has access to with a mobile phone and the internet these days. I don't expect that parental filters are 100% effective, or that every parent is going to bother setting them up.
I mean I guess, I just meant to say that this was too childish for 16-18yo (just said 14 as an example). I don't know how mature 14 yo kids are, but I guess you can have seiorus conversations about sex with them. But yeah, I think we should teach kids more about consent (in all areas of live). And then, when they are mature enough (again don't know when, I leave that to the experts) focus that conversation around sex.
Yeah, we don't need metaphors for sex to teach people sexual consent. Teenagers don't need to be coddled over this subject, they're probably already doing it.
Mormons in aus?... Wtf, canberra, wtf.
Mormons in aus?... Wtf, canberra, wtf.
Not the first time OCE Governments have catered to dubious American interests. The world is a fucking joke.
Without disrespect to mormons and their church, this is just a horrible mismatch in interests over a supposedly educational project. Yikes.
Ah, was thinking something like this. In itself it's indeed weird, but in proper context with further discussions it can help make the point come across. I guess it also matters what is the target age demographic for this. Seems like old enough that there's absolutely no need for this approach. We don't need birds and bees either to educate kids.
And I do understand this criticism. The video could be soooo much better. I don't think the money was well spent with this.It was criticised by sexual assault prevention campaigners for being cutesy and simplistic.
Milkshakes, tacos and consent: New government video slammed as confusing and concerning
New national education materials designed to teach school-aged children about consent, using examples related to tacos, milkshakes and going for a swim, are slammed by campaigners for "trivialising a serious issue".
The video has been pulled.
Milkshake consent video pulled amid mounting political backlash over 'woeful' campaign
Following widespread criticism, the federal government has removed a video that used a metaphor about a milkshake to try to teach children about consent.
At one point, Mormons in Victoria essentially took over the state branch of the Liberal Party (the conservatives, for Americans) via branch-stacking and ran a pretty wide-reaching campaign online to defund the "Safe Schools" program - which was a high school education program intended to educate kids about the LGBTIQ community.
Victoria is pretty much the most progressive state in Australia, so the Mormon incursion more or less made the Liberal party hilariously unelectable. Unfortunately, Safe Schools was defunded by the Federal (Liberal) government and killed in most other states - although Vic preserved it through state funding.
Wasn't this likely a choice to make men view those kind of situations they often put women in from the opposing site? That was my impression, at least. Like "you wouldn't want this done to you, right?"
May be totally wrong though.
That might have been the thought process and maybe the whole thing had good intentions. The problem is it comes off as slapstick and the delivery sounds like its mocking the meaning of consent "Drink it all! tehe" "im rubbing ice cream on someone to make myself feel powerful! im terrible lol!". I doubt they ran this concept by many people (especially existing experts and advocates) before spending so much money on it.
Most bizarrely this is intended for young adults but comes off as patronizingly childish, closer to an Aunty Donna skit mocking poorly conveyed childrens education.
We have been having a time over here lately.
(This was non-consent incident like... three of four from that fortnight)
www.abc.net.au
(This was non-consent incident like... three of four from that fortnight)
Well... let's see what current and former female MPs have to say about the culture in the Parliament and Australian Public Service
'The public would be horrified': Revelations from female politicians in Parliament House
Current and former female politicians say the public "would be horrified" by what it is like to be a woman in politics, exposing the "mind warfare" at play in the corridors of power.
www.abc.net.au
Kate Ellis said:
Julia Banks said:
Karen Andrews said:
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Yeah there is some real context needing to be applied here. My school was looking at using this for our Year 10's on Distance Ed and there is a whole ton of curriculum around it. This isn't some "put the video on and only talk about it for five minutes." There is actual resources behind this, including further information for support channels and such.
Edit: obviously the context siloed is not at all great, and classically makes the victim's serious issues less serious by being whimsical and such. Do remember the target audience for this, and that it is in an education setting with follow up material though. Education material is not easy to create, as much as people think it is. Trust me, my partner is a primary school teacher while I'm a teacher aide to the secondary school of air, shit is hard.
IF that video was targetted at young children i wouldn't see the issue... but for 16-18 y/o teenagers? Just be direct with it and don't cuddle them
The video borders on making a mockery of the issue and has the potential to do more harm than good. Just garbage.
This is much better.
This is much better.
Yep, I'm sure even some of the more problematic issues around the portrayal of the characters might have been covered in the learning materials. This was my experience when I was a teacher and I had to deliver this type of material in values education classes. Sometimes characters in these videos are deliberately "hammed up" because you are trying to provoke a reaction in the people watching it, as a discussion point. That's why if you watch it out of context it can seem odd.
Some of the very valid issues that were raised here, including the reversal of gender roles, the whimsical tone, the milkshake anaolgy - I can almost guaruntee you that these would have been covered in the discussion points and learning materials, or there would have been a very specific reason to design it that way (eg student engagement). We would have been required ask questions about how things shown in the video applied to other things.
That's why it's very hard to make value judgments without seeing the full context.
So this came up in my feed yesterday, probably a coincidence but knowing Scotty from Marketing...
The lower photo is our Prime Minister and his highschool sweetheart.
The lower photo is our Prime Minister and his highschool sweetheart.
If you knew how our government operated, you wouldn't be giving them that benefit of the doubt lol
It isn't too bad.
First version of their video told kids they had to get married, have children, have the children leave home, then you ask your spouse if rape is ok. At this point they hopefully say no and you have learned something the proper conservative way and can apply it to your remaining life.
First version of their video told kids they had to get married, have children, have the children leave home, then you ask your spouse if rape is ok. At this point they hopefully say no and you have learned something the proper conservative way and can apply it to your remaining life.
The Federal government doesn't entirely dictate Australian Curriculum. They do oversee it through budgets, contextual inputs and such but ACARA handles the actual designation/creation of material including structured guidelines. Of course there can always be pressure from the Federal government but then a state/territory can refuse that like Victoria with Safe Schools.
I don't know much about Australian politics so that's fair, lol.
Christine Holgate was thrown under the bus and forced out of her role as CEO of Australia Post for far less money than that.