By Dr Emma Wood

When I was coming of age, “sexual liberalism” looked like it was here to stay. A generation on from the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, I grew up in a world where very few public figures were brave enough to question the supposed progress that the sexual revolution had brought.

As the South Australian parliament continues to examine legislation to decriminalise prostitution in the state, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said the South Australian Police could not support the current bill even though police do “not object to the decriminalisation of sex work per se”.

By Linda Watson

A story has surfaced about a prostitute in Adelaide who alleged she was raped after a male client removed his condom without consent during sex.

The flood of responses from young women to the call by former Kambala student Chanel Contos to share their experiences of sexual assault and treatment at the hands of teenage boys has opened a window into the world that young women are navigating in this country when it comes to boys and sex.  The responses from thousands of girls have chronicled story after story of their damaging sexual experiences, abuse, unwanted sex and feelings of regret and being uncomfortable at the expectations of boys when it comes to sex.

Following the announcement about reforms to NSW’s consent laws, Claire Lehmann, founding editor of Quillette, has written an important piece in The Australian on three false narratives about women when it comes to sex.

The federal government has launched a new online educational resource for “teaching respectful relationships in schools”.

By Emma Wood

Responding adequately to the sad news of the Kambala sexual assault petition — the latest spotlight on the sexual assault epidemic — is a sobering challenge for us all. Leading educators in our secondary schools, depressed by the recent revelations and struggling to find solutions, are themselves revisiting calls for better “consent training” for students. But, as others have argued, “consent training” is bound to be an inadequate response on its own.