February marks another Valentine’s Day. The day is about love and appreciating those around you. Many celebrate the day with chocolates, date nights and romantic gestures. No matter if you are celebrating with a new significant other, the same person you’ve been with for a while, or with some friends, it’s crucial to remember the importance of consent. 

As students need to take the Title IX course, they learn about consent. However, with only a brief course, there can be many questions following. 

A session called Embodied Consent, which focused on connecting the mind with the body when dealing with consent, was taught on Thursday, Feb. 7 in The HUB.

“The learning is in your body, what does a yes feel like in our body… what happens in our body when we say no,” said Shauna Farabaugh, a Somatic Sex Educator.

Farabaugh, who lead the event, has been teaching Somatic Sex Education for more than a decade. Somatic is a type of psychology that refers to changing up your way of thinking so you understand, “My mind is great but my body is equally brilliant,” said Farabaugh. 

Farabaugh has taught this workshop at high schools but has never taught at a public college in California besides Sonoma State. Even though knowledge of consent is not new information, it is still important and is not being taught how it should be used in everyday life. 

As consent is a well known subject in our society due to the efforts of Title IX, people still have been accused of not using this powerful tool correctly. “Being able to track our pleasure and then communicate what we want in a highly charged erotic situation is impossible without practice,” said Farabaugh, paraphrasing Caffyn Jesse, another well known Somatic Sex Educator.

With so much emphasis on consent being a tool for navigating sexual activities responsibly, many forget that consent is needed in everyday life outside of the realm of sexual encounters. Consent is needed for any sort of physical contact, such as hugging and touching a person. This is usually started with a “May I” or a “Will I” before some sort of physical action, Farabaugh said.  

As consent is talked about everywhere from on campus, the news and job trainings, it still needs to be implemented regularly throughout the nation. 

“It’s not a surprise that we struggle culturally with consent because we don’t practice consent.” said Farabaugh.

Even though these important workshops seem to be far and few between, there was a good turn out of interested students and faculty. Many students return to these workshops because they see them as important. 

“I went to [Farabaugh’s] last workshop. I thought her work is important and I want to learn how to be more in touch with my body.” said Kylie Walker, a senior English major.

As this workshop was meant to teach about oneself, it was also a great way to learn more about expressing wants. 

“If I know what I want and need, then I can listen to what they want and need.” said Alex Sahim, a senior Business major and Queer studies minor.

With Valentine’s Day coming and going and Sexual Assault Awareness Month soon approaching, everybody will need to understand how to express their feelings in the most appropriate way possible.  

Farabaugh will be back in April for another workshop.