Mike DomitrzPresident, Author, and Speaker on Respect, The Center for Respect, Inc. · Author & Speaker on Respect for Schools, Corporations, & the Military since 1990 (has reached

A common misconception about consent.

4 Jun 2024 · 1 min

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In this segment of his YouTube presentation, Mike Domitrz introduces the FRIES acronym for consent—Freely given, Reversible, Informed, Enthusiastic, and Specific. He focuses on the often‑misunderstood ‘R’ (Reversible), explaining that reversible does not mean that a later withdrawal erases prior consent. Instead, consent can be withdrawn at any moment, and any activity after the withdrawal must stop, while the earlier consensual period remains valid. Domitrz uses a simple time‑line example (11:00 consent, 11:10 withdrawal) and engages the audience to confirm understanding, emphasizing the importance of clear communication about consent withdrawal.

Chapters

How many of you heard of the FRIES acronym for consent nowadays? Any of you have heard of it? Okay, and so it means freely given, but the R— the F is freely given, the R is reversible. It's a horrible phrase around consent that leads students lost and confused, because what students think reversible means is that 11 o'clock we both said yes, we consented. 11:10 I said no. Now what does reversal imply? about the last 10 minutes, then it removed all 10 minutes of consent. It reversed what I originally said. And it's a mess. That is not how it's meant to be understood. It's free to be removed in any second at any moment. So that means at 11 o'clock, we both say yes, we're both giving consent. 11:10, I say no or stop. Consent has now been removed. Nothing can happen from that point on. It doesn't mean we didn't have consent for the first 10 minutes. How many agree there's a big difference in those 2 words? You agree that's true? Say that's true. That's true.