(Picture: George Lawlor/metro.co.uk)

George Lawlor, a Warwick University student and a senior reporter at the Tab, posted an article about an invitation he was sent to some ‘consent lessons’ about sexual behaviour.

In the article, titled ‘Why I don’t need consent lessons’, George said: ‘I feel as if I’m taking the “wrong” side here, but someone has to say it – I don’t have to be taught to not be a rapist. That much comes naturally to me, as I am sure it does to the overwhelming majority of people you and I know.

‘Brand me a bigot, a misogynist, a rape apologist, I don’t care. I stand by that.’



He claimed that he was completely against the lessons and felt they were a waste of time. This, of course, sparked outrage, with someone calling it ‘one of the most ignorant, misinformed, short-sighted and downright incorrect articles I’ve ever read.’


And social media followed suit:

The irony is that this is exactly the sort of twit who needs to go on a consent course. http://t.co/LrHTVE3lny via @TheTabWarwick — Jane Casey (@JaneCaseyAuthor) October 14, 2015

Speechless at how someone can undermine such important education that fills a crucial hole in our curriculum, awful: http://t.co/LUAkasB9dL — Ione Wells (@ionewells) October 14, 2015

@laurafleur I want a shower after reading that, what an angry little creepbag — harrietreuterhapgood (@hapgoodness) October 14, 2015

George has since deleted his Twitter account but Metro.co.uk spoke to him.

He talked about why he was being a target for criticism:

‘I feel like I don’t need to go and people I know don’t need to go,’ he says.

‘But people will say that’s because I live a privileged white middle class lifestyle.

‘They may be right, they may be wrong. But I feel as though their efforts are wasted. It may be beneficial for some people and stop instances of abuse, but it just seems like wasted efforts.’

Which, we assume, will stop the criticism.

But, why, after being invited to attend, would he feel the need to write the article?

(Picture: George Lawlor/metro.co.uk)

‘I found the invitation to the lessons insulting,’ he says.

‘I don’t consider myself to be somebody who doesn’t know what consent is. Maybe I just have too much faith in my peers.

‘I don’t think consent requires teaching. I don’t think they need to be taught not to be a rapist.’

He thinks that people like him, from a ‘privileged white middle class lifestyle’, are ‘not what [rapists look] like’.

He even held up a sign for a photograph.

University freshers’ weeks are a ‘killing field’ for sexual violence, Dianne Witfield, chief officer at Coventry rape and sexual abuse centre, told the Guardian in 2014.

With this being said, we asked him why he felt the lessons were not suitable for students.

George said: ‘I don’t want to be dogmatic about it.

(Picture: George Lawlor/metro.co.uk)

‘One reason may be because I’ve never been groped by somebody. Perhaps i’m shielded and naive.’

But a lot of drinking happens in Freshers’ Week.

‘Maybe, under the influence of alcohol, it raises the question of who can kiss whom on a night out.

‘Both parties have to be drunk [or] both parties have to be sober.’

But what about if a woman could be drunker than a man (or the other way around)?

Although it may have started as consenting, it is impossible to give further consent if you’re so drunk you pass out.

‘How will a drunk person remember consent lessons?,’ George says.

George continued to complain about the length of the course itself. ‘It’s short. It’s only going on for a week. I don’t think something as short and quick is going to change anything. You have to be taught it growing up. And I’m going to imagine most people were.’



But he does concede that there are issues to be dealt with:

MORE: Babysitter who sexually abused boy, 11, claims she fell in love after his dad set them up

‘There definitely is a problem with sexual harassment and rape, there’s no denying that,’ he says.

‘Something needs to be done but I don’t think this is the best way.’

And these consent lessons, he says, would only be preaching to the converted:

(Picture: George Lawler/metro.co.uk)

‘I imagine it’ll be an echo chamber, he says.

‘If you’re likely to mistreat somebody in a situation like that you’re not going to go to a consent session.

‘I envisage these consent sessions to be people telling each other what they already know.’

MORE: Babysitter who sexually abused boy, 11, claims she fell in love after his dad set them up

When asked how he felt a victim of sexual attack would respond, George said: ‘I’m not going to presume to know what a rape victim would say because they’ve been through something so traumatic that I can’t properly comprehend.’

‘I’m sure the people running the lessons are nice people and they do genuinely care. If they saw a rape victim they would empathise with them and try to help them but in a bigger scale, it isn’t going to help.’

(Picture: George Lawlor/metro.co.uk)

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