On January 13th, the online publication Babe.net published an article from an anonymous woman describing a sexual encounter with actor Aziz Ansari. While Ansari claimed he believed it was consensual, his date did not. She stated that although she did not say ‘no’ outright, she gave numerous verbal and nonverbal cues to indicate her discomfort. This article sparked heated debate in Australia and around the world on the grey area between consensual sex and sexual assault.

The Ansari scandal was one of many allegations that have surfaced in recent months against other high-profile men, most notable being those of against Harvey Weinstein. Because of this, sexual harassment and abuse in Australia and around the world have received unprecedented attention.

It’s a powerful moment in time, and a rare one, when both the media and the public are ready and willing to affect positive change. The allegations and subsequent #MeToo campaign are part of a larger resurgence of women’s movements, including burgeoning discussion that's igniting concrete progress for women.

Prompted by the Aziz Ansari scandal, 50 Shades of No created a social awareness campaign that seeks to eradicate the perceived ‘grey area’ and educate men on the ways women demonstrate non-consent.

The 50 Shades of No campaign was created to educate men and women about the grey areas of sexual consent. We wanted to help the world become aware of all the different ways to say ‘slow down’ or ‘stop’, so we asked women around the world to share moments where their lack of consent was overlooked or ignored by the other party. 50 real women gave us 50 verbal or physical cues they used to try to stop or slow a sexual encounter. We then printed these cues on 50 t-shirts, in 50 different shades of grey.

On International Women’s Day, 50 high profile women and men committed to wearing and sharing one of these shirts on their social channels, to share our message with the world. The shirts were also featured in an online film, and available for sale on an ecommerce site, raising money for Project Consent.

Inspired by the Aziz Ansari scandal, a Facebook page was created asking women to share ways they tried to stop or slow a sexual encounter that were ignored by the other party. These statements were then printed onto t-shirts in 50 shades of grey.

Purposely launched on International Women’s Day, 8th March 2018, the project was released via social media (Facebook and Instagram). 50 public figure committed to take part, wearing a tshirt, sharing it on Instagram and spreading the message to millions. All 50 t-shirts also featured in a film, launch on the same day, depicting a series of scenarios where women did not give consent to participate in sexual encounter.

The t-shirts were made available online for purchase to raise money for Project Consent. Hundreds have already been sold, and reshared on social media. People could create their own custom versions using statements or actions of their own.

The film was posted by influencers and shared by millions worldwide, garnering over 55 million media impressions, 6 million social media impressions and 50 countries reached. On March 8 alone, over 100 tshirts were sold with 100% of profits from TShirt sales is donated to Project Consent, an organisation dedicated to consent education, dismantling rape culture and supporting survivors of sexual assault.

Social influencers and celebrities such as Abigail Breslin (500k followers), Steph Smith (1.3 mill followers) and Ashy Bines (1 million followers) posted pics of themselves wearing the shirts and shared to their followers.

A Facebook page was created to ask women around the world to share the real ways they tried to say ‘stop’ or ‘slow down’ to a sexual encounter. From this we collected 50 different verbal and nonverbal cues from real women trying to communicate nonconsent.

We then reached out to 50 high profile women and men, asking them to wear and share a picture of them wearing a tshirt featuring one of these statements on International Women’s Day. We wanted to educate as broad an audience as possible, and so collaborated with international influencers from a range of industries, including fashion, politics and popular culture.

All 50 tshirts were made available for purchase on an ecommerce site, and featured in an online film. Viewers were encouraged to start a conversation using the hashtag #50shadesofno, and to purchase a t-shirt online, with all proceeds going to Project Consent.

When it comes to consent, the world has been taught that NO means NO. However the reality of how people communicate is more complex and nuanced. While women are socialised to be ‘nice’, men are socialised to be forceful and confident. So it’s no surprise that women tend to communicate their lack of consent in more passive ways – ways that are often overlooked or ignored by men.

We can violate someone’s boundaries by not picking up on their verbal and nonverbal cues, even if we have no ill intentions. But by simply checking in with our partners and looking for signs of discomfort, we can make sure everyone is feeling safe and having a good time.

Prompted by the Aziz Ansari scandal and worldwide dialogue surrounding unwanted sexual behaviour, we set out to show men and women that the absence of no is not consent. And so we launched 50 Shades of No, an organisation that aims to remove the grey area around consent. Our objective was to educate people on the many verbal and nonverbals ways someone could say ‘no’ to sex - signals people could then be aware of and respect.