Charmed! Consent Policy

Charmed! Consent Policy

Charmed! recognizes that there is no universal consensus on what proper consent practices are or should be. That said, this consent policy represents how the Charmed! organizers expect attendees to conduct themselves in their play and may be used to help determine whether an actionable consent incident has occurred. We use the NCSF definition of consent: “Consent is an informed, voluntary agreement by two or more people to engage in a particular BDSM activity or to enter into a BDSM, D/s, or M/s relationship.”

Throughout this policy, the terms partner and scene partner refer to anyone involved in a hypnosis- or BDSM-related activity at Charmed!, regardless of that person’s role or experience level. A scene is any interaction between two or more people which includes hypnosis or BDSM activity.

Consent

Charmed! values informed, affirmative consent as the gold standard for consensual activity. Every participant in a scene should state their informed, affirmative consent to the activities planned for the scene after negotiation has concluded and before the scene begins. Please remember that consent also applies to activity that takes place outside of a scene. The following are examples of actions that require expressed, affirmative consent before doing.

Please remember that consent also applies to activity that takes place outside of a scene. For example, do not:

Touch another person, even in non-sexual ways
Touch or handle another person’s property, be it human property or toys/equipment/clothing
Insert yourself into or interrupt a scene in progress
Involve another person in your scene or non-scene activity
It is the responsibility of everyone who participates in a scene to ensure that they and the other participants are in a proper state of mind to give affirmative consent. Please note that consent must be expressed intentionally through verbal or other clear intentional methods (sign language, written, etc.) — body language or other passive signals are not acceptable.

Revocable Consent

Any participant in a scene may withdraw their consent, in whole or in part, at any time during the scene for any reason or for no reason at all. Scene partners are expected to accept that withdrawal and conduct themselves accordingly. It is the responsibility of every scene partner to say something if they feel there is an issue with the scene and to check in with people who might not be communicating to make sure they are OK.

Respect the “No”

Respecting someone’s “no” is not just about following through, it is also about not badgering someone repeatedly to change their mind. Everyone’s “no” should be accepted at face value. If you would like more clarity as to whether they are interested in other kinds of play, or other details, you can ask. But if no details are given, everyone’s No must be taken as an absolute No.

Negotiation

Before a scene takes place, the participants are expected to negotiate the parameters of the scene. The exact form taken by the negotiation is entirely at the discretion of the participants, and will normally vary depending on factors such as environment, time, or existing relationships. Charmed! provides a Negotiation Worksheet that can be used to document negotiated parameters of a scene; use of this worksheet is generally optional unless one or more of the people involved in the scene is required to use it as a condition of being allowed to play (for example individuals who have been asked by ConCom to take extra steps as part of attending Charmed!).

Negotiation should be conducted with all participants on an equal power footing unless there are pre-existing relationship dynamics that dictate otherwise. Participants should be in a state of mind in which they can make their own judgments and give informed, affirmative consent; do not enter negotiations with someone who appears to be unable to do that. Do not attempt to influence, persuade, or coerce people by deliberately employing techniques such as covert hypnosis, waking suggestion, or neurolinguistic programming methods during negotiations.

Once a scene has begun, any participant may still choose to withdraw agreement or consent for a previously agreed-on activity for any reason or for no stated reason. Do not attempt to re-negotiate during a scene to add previously rejected activities or overrule previously negotiated limits.

Consent Incident Handling
A consent incident is any situation. A consent incident can happen during play or in general interactions. It is the policy of Charmed! to take all reasonable measures to support anyone involved in a consent incident and to resolve the incident as fairly, discreetly, and efficiently as possible.

Charmed! provides a consent team to support our attendees. The role of the consent team is to ensure that everyone involved in a possible consent incident is heard, understood, and supported, and to gather information from the people involved in the incident. The consent team will submit a report to the Charmed! concom after everyone involved has been heard, and the concom will then make a decision as to what actions, if any, to take.

For more information on how Charmed! handles consent incidents and other consent- or policy-related complaints, please see the Charmed! Report Handling Procedure document.

See the Charmed Consent FAQ for more details.