Illustrations by Lucy Han. In the first semester of her freshman year at the University of Portland, Clara Ell claims she was sexually assaulted by a male student in her dorm room after a night of heavy drinking. The way the night ended is difficult for her to remember, but the way it started is crystal-clear: Clara—a lanky girl with big brown eyes and a long mane of curls—wandered a few blocks off-campus to a house party. She and her high school friend-turned-roommate, Krista Baldwin, were recent recruits to the women's lacrosse club team, and on this night, the captains were hosting a "team bonding" party. The theme of the party was "Star Spangled Hammered"; Clara wore denim cutoffs, a blue and white striped tank top, and a red sweatshirt. She borrowed a hardhat from a friend, decorated with an all-over flag print. Around 9 PM, the year-old girls walked five blocks from their dorm on the small Catholic campus to the party. The all-girls party was still quiet when they got there, and the freshmen joined in a round of a drinking game called "Rage Cage" with their teammates, a flurry of ping pong balls bouncing into red Solo cups filled with beer.


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Richie Sadlier and Elaine Byrnes discuss consent with transition year boys
Richie: Does anyone in the class have any idea how they might explain consent to someone? Paulo: Yeah but they could just be really rigid and shy, or quiet. Elaine: Yes! Communication is everything when it comes to consent. Gareth: Okay, what are you meant to say? Richie: Well that might kill the mood a little.
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There's no question that taking drugs or drinking before you have sex has an effect on the, ahem, activities that follow. Surely this is something you've discussed among friends, but to give your next conversation about the nuances of sex under the influence a bit more weight, teams of researchers from New York University and Johns Hopkins University published two separate studies on the topic in the Archives of Sexual Behavior and Psychopharmacology. The first study in Archives of Sexual Behavior is an in-depth, qualitative study that focuses on the details of how marijuana and alcohol affect sex, and followed the sex lives of 24 participants — 12 men, 12 women, all heterosexual — to glean information. The second from Psychopharmacology focuses on cocaine's effect on sex based on controlled administration of the drug to 12 participants who didn't know whether they were taking the drug or a placebo during the study. Some of the surface findings seem cool and fun — people are more talkative!
Julia Robinson for BuzzFeed News. One afternoon in March , Kim Fromme took the stand in a Santa Clara, California, courtroom as an expert witness in the now-infamous case of the People v. Brock Allen Turner. The defense, arguing that Doe had consented before she fell unconscious, hoped to tell the story of a drunken college hookup. To do so, they needed Fromme. Fromme, a clinical psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has testified in, consulted on, or provided depositions for more than 50 criminal, civil, and military cases since , the majority of which have involved men accused of sexually assaulting drunk women. Fromme tugs at her hair as she explains how hair samples can be used to test for certain drugs during testimony in Steubenville, Ohio, in Fromme has studied the effects of alcohol intoxication and associated risk-taking for three decades, and she sees herself as an unbiased educator who believes everyone has the right to a fair trial, including alleged rapists. The facts are the facts.