Presentation of Undergraduate Thesis with Distinction, Nona Gronert, Department of Sociology, Occidental College Abstract A National Institute of Justice (Fisher et al. 2000) report projects that between one-fourth and one-fifth of female undergraduate students will experience a rape or attempted rape during their college careers. Current research has shown that college students struggle with nonconsensual sexual encounters. The purpose of this study is to explore if mainstream television shows contribute to undergraduate students’ challenges with sexual consent. My research question is: what role do ideas about sexual consent play in people’s perceptions of sex scenes in popular media? Data were collected with audio-recorded, open-ended, semi-structured interviews with students from a liberal arts college in Southern California. The interviews included the viewing of four scenes of ostensibly consensual sexual encounters from popular television programs and questions regarding the nuances of sexual consent in each encounter. Television show scenes were chosen by assessing the top 30 television programs on the popular website, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). The criteria for selecting television shows were that they have characters close to the age of college students and were aired on network television, thereby making these shows accessible to the public. The four scenes were drawn from Grey’s Anatomy, Gossip Girl, and The Vampire Diaries. These scenes varied in verbal communication related to sexual activity, characters’ relationship status, the presence of alcohol, and violence. Findings show that respondents populated three perspectives about the television scenes. One group considered all of the scenes consensual while another group considered none of the scenes consensual. The third group perceived some scenes as consensual and some scenes as nonconsensual. Respondents disagreed as to whether specific elements of sexual encounters, such as intoxication, violence, and verbal communication, rendered those encounters nonconsensual. Results indicate that college students’ perceptions of consent vary. These differences have the potential to cause confusion regarding consent, which may result in sexual assault.

1. The “Grey Area:”
College Students’ Perceptions of
Sexual Consent in Popular Television
Programs
Nona Gronert
Occidental College

2. Outline
• Research question
• Methodology
• Results
• Contributions

3. Research Question
What role do ideas about sexual consent
play in people’s perceptions of sex scenes in
popular media?

4. Background
 Sexual violence
 College students’ difficulties with sexual
consent
 Limited experiences of sexual intercourse
 Television as a space where students learn
to think about consent

5. Methodology
 Open-ended, semi-structured interviews
using a reception analysis approach
 19 interviews with college students
 4 television scenes

6. Findings
• 3 groups
• Focus on the presence of violence, alcohol
and verbal communication of consent
• Not unified in their interpretations of
sexual consent

7. Violence
“I still think it comes down to body language, you know, they
were still, like, you know, if they hate each other, they wouldn't
be getting closer and closer to each other, you know. It’s, like,
kinda that sort of thing, like, they kinda, ummm... they both
want to be in that position, I guess. And I feel like at any point
even when they started, they initiated the, you know, when, like,
they started kissing, they could have ended it there if they
wanted it to.”
--Hal

8. Violence

9. Violence
“It’s more or less this forced action that then the
person consents to, which is not ok ‘cause like
essentially each time is like assaulting an individual
prior to the giving of their consent . . . but, like, it’s
not, it’s just not right to do it that way.”
--Jack

10. Alcohol

11. Alcohol
“The fact that they were drunk? Uh, I mean I
think it’s fine. Neither one of them looked like
they were gonna die, they both were drunk.
Ummm … so, it didn’t seem like, you know, one
was taking advantage of the other.”
--Alex

12. Alcohol
“If she was drunk, then I would say no, it was
not consensual . . . but I think that one’s
more grey area, not consensual, depending
on how drunk she was.” --Rose

13. Verbal Consent
“It wasn’t so much a verbal question like, ‘do
you want to have sex?’ but, like, the way they
were communicating verbally eventually
physically seemed to be consensual.”
--Rose

14. Verbal Consent
“I mean the third one is like the one where there’s
actually a question, like I mean he doesn’t outright say
‘do you wanna have sex’ but he says ‘do you want to get
out of here’ and she's like ‘yes.’ That’s like the only one
where there’s like an actual yes! [giggling] I mean like a
verbal yes.” --Hannah

15. Verbal Consent
“They’re not consensual because no one’s sort
Of asks another if they should have sex.”
--Tony

16. Verbal Consent
“No, I would say, there was like no talk of consent,
really . . . In the Vampire Diaries one, by him saying
like, ‘let's get out of here,’ there might be an
assumption associated with that and then her saying,
‘Okay,’ like could be consent, quote, unquote. But,
I don't really think that qualifies, either.”
--Natalie

17. Contributions
• Multiple contrasting sexual scripts
• Disagreement as to what constitutes verbal
consent

18. Acknowledgements
• Comps class
• Professor Wade
• Supportive friends
• Family

19. Thank you!
Nona Gronert
Occidental College

20. Policy Implications
• Dialogue about sexual consent
• Campus-wide standards
• Verbal consent

21. Future Research
• Public and private universities
• Homosexual and bisexual students
• Differences in sexual scripts
• Criteria for consent