The No Means No Show
In 2003 Nelly developed a show for young women about
sex, consent and respectful sexual relationships with
CASA House (Centre Against Sexual Assault) and the Royal
Women’s Hospital in Melbourne. Building on the
success of other comedy-based health promotion shows
Nelly had done previously with The Women’s, the
No Means No Show was developed and has since played to
thousands of teenagers. The content of the show is respectful
and appropriate and through sensitive, engaging comedy
explores common scenarios, social situations, myths and
raises awareness of rights and responsibilities in relation
to sexual assault.
Audience Evaluation Comments from the Each Youth Conference 2010 where Nelly did a snippet of the No Means No Show:
"No Means No show needs to go into schools, Tafes and Uni and sporting clubs including catholic schools "
"More funding for youth mental health and No Means No Show"
"Need to approach the AFL, all its members players and senior people need to be aware of the profound influence on young men and their behaviour"
"No Means No, Show should be an Australia wide show in theatres, community and schools"
In recent times, Nelly and her team have again worked with a panel of health experts from CASA House, The Women’s and Men’s No to Violence Groups to develop a boy's show based on the same themes.
Both shows are one hour in length and are followed by a Question and Answer session with health professionals and counsellors working in the area of sexual assault. The shows are gender specific (that is, separate boys and girls performances) to allow the Q&A to be truly effective.
Both the boys and girls No Means No Shows are available for touring to schools and groups that offer respectful relationships education to their students. It is not available to schools as a replacement for such programs.
Subscribe for more info
"We were thrilled to have Nelly perform at our ASHE Opening Day. She just has this relaxed way of connecting with young people that makes them comfortable to engage around what is a pretty delicate but really important issue. Hopefully this is not the last we see of Nelly. Her No Means No sidekick, Isaac Drandich, was fantastic too."
Phillip Guthrie, Manager - Academy of Sport, Health and Education
"On behalf of Marie Stopes Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program (SNAKE Condoms), we would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you for participating in the recent SNAKE Forum: Young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. It was a truly inspiring event, and since its finish we have already received many reports back from community about how greatly empowered and stronger the women have returned... Your ‘No Means No’ excerpts session was actually mentioned as being one of the most useful and enjoyable of the whole Forum! Thank you again for the magic you brought to the Forum, and we very much look forward to working with you again in the future."
Bev Greet, Manager Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health
Marie Stopes International Australia www.mariestopes.org.au
Evaluations:
The boys show is new and is yet to be evaluated, but
evaluations of the girls show are available on request.
Some snippets from those evaluations are below.
"...overwhelmingly a highly successful event. It seems that health promotion via comedy is a very engaging and accessible format..."
The Royal Women's Hospital (RWH)
What the young women in the audience from the 2006 shows said in their evaluations about the No Means No Show (source, RWH):
"It was fantastic. Should be more things like this."
"Better than sex education any day."
"It was funny and honest. They didn't try and hide anything from us."
"I like the fact that they are showing us ... that our bodies are ours."
"They are not afraid to tell us how it is. They were not treating us like idiots."
"I have learnt to say no if you're not ready and to stick up for myself."
"You want me cos I'm so damn fine, but back off, my body's mine!"
"I have learnt that it is never your fault when you get sexually assaulted."
"The comedy loosened things up even though we were discussing such an important subject."