The continuing cases of sexual assault among young people globally are an issue of concern. In view of this, the conception of affirmative sexual consent has emerged; that is, it is no longer necessary to say "no" but rather a "yes" is required for sexual consent to be considered to have taken place. However, the "only yes means yes" approach to affirmative consent continues to leave many victims of sexual violence unprotected as such "yes" can be coerced. This is why the conception of sexual consent based on communicative acts (Vidu & Tomás-Martinez, 2019) is the one that most guarantees the protection of potential victims by taking into account not only Physical Power (physical force) and Institutional Power (in unequal positions) but also Interactive Power. 

Interactive Power includes positions of power beyond the relationships mediated by institutions. That is, it takes into account the situation of vulnerability or power according to the context in which interactions take place (Flecha et al., 2020).

With regard to victimisation in relation to sexual consent issues, not only the peer pressure to initiate certain sexual approaches plays an essential role, especially at the beginning of their affective-sexual relationships, which many studies and young people themselves have already mentioned, (Widman et al., 2016) but especially, the coercive discourse  (Racionero-Plaza et al., 2022). This pressure to initiate sexual relations faced by young people is a global problem (Macleod & Jearey-Graham, 2016; Chan & Chan, 2013).

One of the keys identified by the scientific literature in numerous and diverse contexts for overcoming or preventing situations of all types of violence, including sexual violence, is the response and intervention by the people who witness it (Coker et al., 2015). However, despite the research consensus on the effectiveness of bystander intervention, the scientific literature has also shown that, in many cases, the witnesses who take a stand for the victim suffer Isolating Gender Violence as a consequence (IGV). IGV is violence against people who take a stand with the victims with the intention of leaving the victims isolated, thus preventing them from overcoming their victimisation (Vidu et al., 2021). The scientific literature has evidenced how Isolating Gender Violence (IGV) occurs in any type of relationship and in a diversity of people and contexts.

Support movements and solidarity networks created to protect victims have been successful in transforming many victims into survivors precisely because of this approach. The MeToo University movement was generated precisely in a Spanish university context in which many victims of sexual violence by faculty or students were unprotected and silenced by the institution for fear of reprisals (Joanpere et al., 2022).

Within the framework of the CONSENT project (PID2019-110466RB-I00), from speech acts to communicative acts, fieldwork has been carried out with young people aged 18 to 25 to find out, among other issues, who have taken a stand to support them or others in these cases. Despite their initial unfamiliarity with some of the scientific concepts, by sharing with participants the scientific evidence they were able to identify IGV situations they had experienced or witnessed.  

The two main findings of the research were that, when faced with situations of coercion that could affect consent (1) they found few protective reactions to victims from witnesses and that when they did, they were often retaliated against. (2) Some of the young people interviewed expressed having support strategies and help signals, either beforehand or on the spot, to protect themselves and their friends from situations of coercion

For the fieldwork with young people corresponding to Phase 2 of the project, the critical communicative methodology (Gómez et al., 2006) was used because of the sensitivity of the topics and because it is the only one that allows the scientific evidence to be put into an equal dialogue with the participants and which has proven successful in including the voices of vulnerable groups as well. Thus, the fieldwork was carried out during the months of June and September 2021 using two research instruments: 50 communicative life stories and 7 communicative discussion groups. In both techniques the dialogues emerged on the basis of sharing scientific evidence on sexual consent based on communicative acts, as the methodology requires. A total of 78 young people between the ages of 18 and 25 participated. The communicative discussion groups consisted of natural groups varying from 2 to 8 participants each. Participant selection was made through the criteria previously established by the project. Geographical diversity was covered including 6 different Spanish regions. The participants belonged to different and diverse backgrounds: different educational levels, rural and urban origin, as well as different nationalities, the majority being Spanish. The selection of participants was initially carried out by the project researchers who contacted students from the university offering them the opportunity to participate. After the first contacts made directly from researchers to students, the rest of the selection process was snowballed. A very important criterion that was taken into account when selecting the first contacts in order to avoid conflict of interest was that the university students contacted should not have the researchers proposing their participation in the research as a teacher. Another important fact regarding the diversity of the participants was the different socialisation spaces they frequented with the intention of initiating this type of relationship as well as the diversity of relationships they sought or had more frequently: stable, sporadic, open relationships, etc. All participants completed an informed consent form explaining the aims of the research and the project and informing them of their rights to participate and withdraw from the research.

In relation to the scenarios of taking a stand for the victim suffering from coercion to consent some explained: (1) Their group of friends had strategies and signs, sometimes previously discussed, to make the others know they were in an uncomfortable situation in order to be assisted to escape it. (2) In many occasions, people positioning against the aggressor, either a friend or just a witness, suffered from reprisals in different forms such as being called “buzzkill”. Results from the present research show how sharing the latest scientific evidence concerning Sexual Consent made the youth interviewed more aware of the lived situations making it possible to identify them in the future and act more safely towards them both as victims and upstanders. Identification of Isolating Gender Violence and specially confronting it effectively when it is recognised is a major key to overcoming coercion in the context of all kinds of affective-sexual relationships and promoting the power to choose freely. Although the contexts of participants were diverse, common elements were found related to these results. Contributing to the creation of safe spaces in educational settingsaddressing these issues from the scientific evidence, may trigger also more informal dialogues around them contributing to the protection of victimisation from both Sexual Violence and Isolating Gender Violence. While scientific dialogues with the population on Isolating Gender Violence are being enhanced, it is imperative that institutions focus on detecting Isolating Gender Violence in order to protect victims from all types of violence, as without support there is no chance of transformation from victims to survivors.

Chan, S. M., & Chan, K. W. (2013). Adolescents’ susceptibility to peer pressure: Relations to parent–adolescent relationship and adolescents’ emotional autonomy from parents. Youth & Society, 45(2), 286-302. Coker, A. L., Fisher, B. S., Bush, H. M., Swan, S. C., Williams, C. M., Clear, E. R., & DeGue, S. (2015). Evaluation of the Green Dot Bystander Intervention to Reduce Interpersonal Violence Among College Students Across Three Campuses. Violence Against Women, 21(12), 1507–1527. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801214545284 Flecha, R.; Tomás, G.; Vidu, A. (2020). Contributions from psychology to effective use and achievement of sexual consents. Frontiers in Psychology. https://10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00092 Gómez, J., Latorre, A., Sánchez, M. & Flecha R. (2006). Metodología comunicativa crítica. El Roure. Joanpere, M., Burgués-Freitas, A., Soler, M., & Aiello, E. (2022). History of MeToo University movement in Spain. Social and Education History, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.17583/hse.10545 Macleod, C. I., & Jearey-Graham, N. (2016). “Peer pressure” and “peer normalization”: discursive resources that justify gendered youth sexualities. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 13, 230-240. Racionero-Plaza, S., Puigvert, L., Soler-Gallart, M & Flecha, R. (2022). Contributions of Socioneuroscience to Research on Coerced and Free Sexual-Affective Desire. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. 15(814796). https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2021.814796 Vidu, A., Puigvert, L., Flecha, R.. & López de Aguileta, G. (2021). The Concept and the Name of Isolating Gender Violence. Multidisciplinary Journal of Gender Studies, 10(2), 176-200. http://doi:10.17583/generos.2021.8622 Vidu, A., & Tomás Martínez, G. (2019). The Affirmative “Yes”. Sexual Offense Based on Consent. Masculinities and Social Change, 8(1), 91-112. https://doi.org/10.17583/mcs.2019.3779 Widman, L., Choukas-Bradley, S., Helms, S. W., & Prinstein, M. J. (2016). Adolescent Susceptibility to Peer Influence in Sexual Situations. The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 58(3), 323–329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2015.10.253