02/10/2026
Consent: Dads all need to step up and teach their sons.
I keep thinking about this powerful article about a horrific story at Cornell University where a young woman has given a sickening account of how she r***d by numerous young men at a college party.
Gaby Hinsliff sets out; “How has r**e prevention become yet another thing on mothers’ to-do lists? Where are all the men – the celebrity dads, the sports coaches and the role models, the male politicians who are usually only too keen to talk about sexual assault if the perpetrators are immigrants – with ideas for countering the warped, pornified messages boys receive? I understand why good men might be wary of speaking over women. But this is a job for all parents, not just half of them.”
I couldn’t agree more. My boys are primary school age but the conversations must start now - such as teaching how important it is for there to be consent in games.
I’ve looked for a campaign or information page where Dads are encouraged & supported to step up in this way and have these vital conversations with their sons - I’m struggling to find anything to be honest.
If anyone can point me in the right direction of something like this, then that would be great…but if not, it really feels there should be more out there to help Dads have these vital conversations with their boys.
Boys learn by watching how the men they respect treat their partners, female colleagues, women on the street. Now is the time for those men to step up, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff
