Huge thanks to Paisley Gilmour for writing an awesome piece about The Consent Checklist for Cosmopolitan magazine.

This free zine about consent is the nuanced explainer we’ve been waiting for

Meg-John Barker’s ‘The Consent Checklist‘ is perfect for anyone who still doesn’t quite get it.

While generally we’re talking about sex and consent more openly these days, ill-thought out inventions like the consent condom and research looking into our attitudes towards sexual consent show we’re still not quite getting it. Just last year, a Family Planning Association (FPA) study found 39% of people aged 14-17 didn’t think it was OK to withdraw consent while naked. It also found only 13% of people would feel comfortable talking about consent with a partner.

And while there are many consent explainers out there (remember the cup of tea metaphor?), they’re often far too basic in their explanations, says Dr Meg-John Barker, relationships educator and author of Rewriting the Rules, Enjoy Sex, and Gender: A Graphic Guide.

“I think we’re just beginning to get how important consent is, but a lot of resources out there are over-simplified: it’s just about not doing things to a person if they’ve said ‘no’,” they explain. So Meg-John has created their own explainer in the form of a free, downloadable zine The Consent Checklist. Read more…