Abstract
AbstractThis article asks: Is it possible to craft a form of engaged, anti‐carceral, feminist political practice that carves out a space for sexual negotiation, exploration, sex positivity, and changing conceptions of consent in an era shaped by hypermediation and, for the purposes of this paper, #MeToo? Five British based academics working in the areas of sexuality studies, law, media studies, and sociology were interviewed on this topic so as to better understand contemporary scholarly attitudes and where current research stands. Each scholar was asked a series of questions around consent as a legal and normative regulator of sexual relations—including its drawbacks, their views on other models of consent—including communicative consent, embodied consent, sexual autonomy—the possibilities for alternative forms of justice, inclusive of prison abolition and restorative justice as they relate to sexual violence, and the kinds of feminism(s) they see developing from this.
Highlights
The subject of sexual assault and the precarity of consent as it relates to the subjects of race, gender, sex, class, power, and justice, is a matter of significant consequence to our contemporary society
Commentariat holding polarised conclusions about its meaning for both survivors and offenders (De Benedictis et al, 2019; Mendes et al, 2018; Ozkazanc-Pan, 2019; Zarkov & Davis, 2018). Wading into this debate holds dangers both for the writer, for whom the likelihood for backlash is strong, and the reader, for whom the visceral impact of sexual assault might feel infinitely removed from dry debates around consent, sexual relationality, and criminal jurisprudence. This project began with the question of how consent as socio-legal construct that developed out of conceptions of contract and property, wherein women were considered the property of their father and their husband, was being deployed in contemporary discourse around #MeToo as well as in the dominant “feminist” analysis of sexual assault (Bevacqua, 2000; Jaffe, 2018)
This, coupled with underlying racial dynamics connected to carceral feminism and the overpolicing of Black bodies, evolved into the question: Is it possible for contemporary conceptions of consent to exist alongside sex positive left feminism while embracing restorative justice over incarceration? Reading, watching and monitoring a copious number of articles, books, video clips, documentaries, media hot takes, Twitter debates and threads, Instagram profiles, Youtube videos, and Facebook updates produced some interesting conclusions, yet it felt as though they required a kind of “hashing out” with contemporary scholars in the field working on these issues
Summary
The subject of sexual assault and the precarity of consent as it relates to the subjects of race, gender, sex, class, power, and justice, is a matter of significant consequence to our contemporary society This is reflected in the thousands of journal articles, books, journalistic and social media output covering #MeToo produced over the past four years which has resulted in academics, journalists, and the. SIKKA commentariat holding polarised conclusions about its meaning for both survivors and offenders (De Benedictis et al, 2019; Mendes et al, 2018; Ozkazanc-Pan, 2019; Zarkov & Davis, 2018) Wading into this debate holds dangers both for the writer, for whom the likelihood for backlash is strong, and the reader, for whom the visceral impact of sexual assault might feel infinitely removed from dry debates around consent, sexual relationality, and criminal jurisprudence. This, coupled with underlying racial dynamics connected to carceral feminism and the overpolicing of Black bodies, evolved into the question: Is it possible for contemporary conceptions of (affirmative/enthusiastic) consent to exist alongside sex positive left feminism while embracing restorative justice over incarceration? Reading, watching and monitoring a copious number of articles, books, video clips, documentaries, media hot takes, Twitter debates and threads, Instagram profiles, Youtube videos, and Facebook updates produced some interesting conclusions, yet it felt as though they required a kind of “hashing out” with contemporary scholars in the field working on these issues
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