Students present at the “Consent is like Pizza” event last Wednesday found there was more in store than just free pizza. In collaboration with RISE: Healthy for Life, Access presented students with the opportunity to have an informed conversation surrounding consent.

“We try to take the fear and shame out of sex [education],” said Jessie Birkeland, a collaborating director with RISE. “Doing something like ‘Consent is like Pizza’ kind of takes all that discomfort out.”

Access project manager Melody Blevins said that they sought out a partnership with RISE after being approached by a student interested in learning more about healthy relationships. Like Birkeland, she also sees the pizza metaphor as an effective and safe way to approach the often uncomfortable discussion of consent.

“If you’re ordering a pizza with your friends you have discussions about what toppings you want and what you don’t want and you come to an agreement,” Blevins said. “Everybody that’s interested in having that pizza is involved in that discussion.”

Blevins hopes that the event is able to not only demonstrate what proper consent looks like, but also to inform attendees that the need for consent exists across any type of relationship.

“There’s different levels of consent,” Blevins said. “Like consent to just touch somebody else’s body, [to] give them a hug, [to] give them a high five . . . some people want consent for that.”

Blevins presents participants with a group agreements on consent. (Abby Trembeczki/East Tennessean).

“Consent is like Pizza” is the unofficial kickoff to a six-part series of “Stellar Sex Education” classes also hosted by Access and RISE. Workshops will be hosted on Wednesdays during October and November, and each session will discuss a different aspect of sex education.

“Our philosophy is to just give people the information and they’re going to make their own informed decisions,” Birkeland said.

Blevins is excited to continue working with RISE to bring an inclusive discussion of sex education to campus; she says all of the workshops are participant-driven, so students will have the opportunity to hear more than one perspective and learn from other attendees.

“No matter what somebody’s goal is when they go in to attend [a] workshop, they’re going to get out of it what they’re interested in,” Blevins said.

For more information on the “Stellar Sex Education” classes, check the ETSU calendar of events. 

For more information on Access ETSU, visit their website: https://www.etsu.edu/coe/access/ or follow them on Instagram: @accessetsu. 

For more information on RISE, visit their website: https://risehfl.org/

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