Acronyms Models for Consent
SSC – Safe Sane & Consensual
RACK – Risk Aware Consensual Kink
PRICK – Personal Responsible Informed Consensual Kink
As established earlier in the course, consenting to a (kink) activity always needs to come from an informed background. You need to know where you stand in regards to the activity and people involved, you need to have information about the practice or actions that ask for your consent and you need to know how the responsibility for what you are engaging in is shared (or not).
That is why BDSM/kink the SSC (safe-sane-consensual) concept was established. SSC means that everything is based on safe activities, that all participants are of sufficiently sound mind to consent to, and that all participants do consent. SSC is a great start, however for many people in kink it is problematic as e.g. the idea of a “safe” activity, especially in kink, is ambivalent and not clear enough. The same goes for the idea of a “sound mind” which is not only to general, but also stems from an ableist perspective. In short, the SSC principle is a good way to establish that consent is key, however we feel it is necessary to go deeper into the topic.
This is where RACK and PRICK – two principles that expand the basic idea of SSC come into play.
RACK is a concept that is generally permissive of certain risky behaviors, as long as all of the people involved understand and are aware of the risks.
PRICK goes even further in defining risk-awareness and the responsibility for being informed and sharing the risk. This concept tries to ensure more safety on both (or more) sides included. Meaning that all of the participants consent to being as fully informed about the activities they are going to be doing as possible, have a personal responsibility to inform themselves beforehand and will also take personal responsibility for their actions
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1) Which of the above consent models resonated for you?
2) How can you personally inform yourself about your topic activity or chosen kink?
3) How do you navigate the not only being aware of the risks involved but taking responsibility for them in case something goes wrong?