Pro-consent

Pro-consent or pro consent is an identity in contact discourse that has no independent meaning on its own. It spread due to a misunderstanding and gained popularity among both anti-contact and pro-contact ideologues who tried to make it synonymous with their political positions.

History

It is unclear when term "pro-consent" was first used. In the beginning of 2020 an anti-map Twitter user that has misread "pro c" in a map's bio has popularized it for the first time. It is possible to assume that this blogger deabbreviated "pro c" in such a way because that map was talking about children consenting. Other sources point at NAMBLA as the origin.

Pro-contact map bloggers of Twitter liked this term and decided to use it. Anti-contact maps joined in a few days later, and since then "pro-consent" has had several short spikes of popularity among all camps of contact discourse.

Meanings

Pro-contact

Pro-contact ideologues define "pro-consent" as a position in defense of children being able to give consent to adults; pro enthusiastic relationships with children, anti forced sex with children.

Anti-contact

Anti-contact ideologues define "pro-consent" as respect for the fact that sometimes consent cannot and will not take place; against all relationships where consent is absent or dubious, including relationships between adults and children.

Criticism

The term has been criticized as unnecessarily inflammatory, because it forces the "anti-consent" label onto the opponent. In addition to that, its popularity among people across the entire contact discourse spectrum, as well as individual differences in the definition of "consent", decrease its usefulness as a political group label.