Season two of Riverdale is already underway, and the violent start to the season caught some viewers off guard. When beloved characters aren't being killed off, the show will be tackling consent this season. Creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa addressed how that will happen in an interview with Glamour, sharing some of the things that viewers can look forward to in the show's second season.
In the interview, the question of consent and safer sex arose while discussing a shower scene between Archie and Veronica. Aguirre-Sacasa had this to say:
"We definitely address the issue of consent in an upcoming story. And yeah, our characters are more — especially Archie and Veronica — sexually active this season. I definitely think Archie and Veronica have had a conversation, or many, in fact, about safe sex. I wouldn’t be surprised if a conversation like that happens soon on the show."
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Conversations of consent and safer sex always been a prominent topic, but especially in the wake of such public discussions of how normalised sexual violence is in our culture, it's necessary that we have television shows take responsibility to depict normalising positive sexual experiences.
Riverdale may be the latest show to do this, but it certainly isn't the first. Shows like Insecure and Outlander are being praised for their realistic and positive depictions of sex, while other shows like Sweet/Vicious and The Bold Type have tackled sexual violence directly. Riverdale's addressing of consent is a step in the right direction, and hopefully more shows will follow suit. Models in entertainment that address sexual violence and centre positive sexual experiences are needed now more than ever.
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