In September 2014, a mobile phone app was launched in response to the growing number of sexual assaults on university campuses in the U.S. The app, Good2Go, was available as a free download on iPhone and Android devices. The app was developed on the understanding that drug and alcohol use often precedes acts of sexual assault on campuses and can blur or obscure the issue of consensual sex. Good2Go’s twin objectives were to help clarify the language of consent for young adults and to help users evaluate their level of sobriety prior to engagement in sexual activity. There was a great deal of media scrutiny and public outrage following the launch of the app. Within two weeks, Apple pulled Good2Go from its app list. The rationale behind the decision remains unclear, but it is generally understood the decision was based on concerns about the appropriateness of the explicit language used on the app which apparently ran counter to Apple’s guidelines.
The Good2Go app was created by Lee Ann Allman. During discussions with her university-aged children, Allman was concerned to discover that they were confused about issues surrounding sex and consent, particularly when alcohol or drugs were involved. She designed the app specifically for young adults with the aim of providing a readily available free mobile phone download for users to access in order to gauge their intoxication levels before consenting to sexual activity. Although the app has been withdrawn, the Good2Go website remains and provides information about the rationale behind the development of the original app and outlines plans for the development of a future app for specific use in educational settings.
I’m driven to write about Good2Go because I am also concerned about language use. In this instance, however, I’m not concerned about the choice of explicit language on a now defunct app. I’m concerned about the website’s pedantic use of gender-neutral language; it carefully uses terms like “young people”, “young adults”, and “users”.
The gender-neutral language used on the Good2Go website is breathtaking in its failure to reflect the reality of rape and sexual assault. An uncritical and unreflective reading of the website would leave the reader without any appreciation of the statistically supported facts that sexually violent crimes are overwhelmingly committed by male perpetrators and that male perpetrators overwhelmingly target female victims. Globally, the statistics surrounding reported cases of sexual violence are unequivocal: males commit almost all rapes and sexual assaults; females under 25 years represent the largest group of victims; and, more specifically, girls in the 10-14 year age group have the highest victimisation rates. Girls and women do not generally rape or sexually assault men. Insisting on the use of gender-neutral language masks this reality.
I’m deeply concerned about representations of rape and sexual assault that fail to acknowledge this gender bias. Any failure to overtly acknowledge this bias contributes to the cultural silencing that continues to accompany acts of sexual violence against girls and women. Any contribution to the cultural silencing of sexual violence exacerbates issues of shame and this impacts directly on the victims themselves by perpetuating self-silencing practices.
If, as the Good2Go website claims, the organisation is concerned to develop an app that educates young people about issues surrounding consensual sex, and if it aims to help young people ‘understand the importance in asking for and receiving affirmative consent before and throughout any sexual activity’, then it must first acknowledge that girls and women represent the largest group of victims. Until it does so, it will continue to obscure questions of responsibility.
It happens all the time 