As part of a research on students’ experiences of sexual consent and non-consent, 37 interviews were conducted with the student population of the Université de Moncton. A thematic, situational and systemic analysis (Paillé & Mucchielli, 2012) of these discourses reveals the influence of gendered socialization, in particular heteronormative sexual socialization, on the student’s understanding of consent and sexual violence. We note that the female stereotypes of vulnerability, passivity, kindness and purity contribute to women’s difficulty to assert their non-consent, to affirm their consent, as well as their tendency to hold themselves accountable for their experiences of sexual violence. For men, the norms of hegemonic masculinity contribute to the difficulty of respecting or detecting non-consent in the partner, to the trivialization of sexual violence and to the denial of their sexual victimization. These are heterosexist norms that make sexual violence possible and excusable, set up as a system that underpins rape culture. Finally, the need for a major social change, a diversified socialization of gender and sexuality, is highlighted.