Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
When we think of sex--good sex, bad sex, sexual assault, rape law, or university sexual misconduct policies--we so often turn to consent as both our moral and erotic savior. What counts as sexual consent? How can we make consent sexy? How do we teach consent to impressionable youth, potential predators, and victims alike?
What if these are all the wrong questions?
Screw Consent is a provocative take on consent and whether its place at the center of sexual politics and sex law is warranted. The book takes aim at sex imagined at the center of our moral universe: adult, coupled, consensual. By spotlighting sex on the periphery--bestial, necrophilic, kinky, cannibalistic--Screw Consent shows that sex on the margins confounds the ethical force of consent much further than we anticipate. Author Joseph J. Fischel fervently argues that the consent paradigm of sexual politics is profoundly flawed. In addition to the criticisms against consent leveled by feminist theorists of earlier generations, Fischel elevates three more: consent is insufficient, inapposite, and riddled with scope contradictions for regulating and imagining sex. We can do so much better than consent in our sexual politics.
Fischel contends that sexual justice turns more productively on concepts of autonomy and access rather than consent. Cleverly humorous and adeptly researched, Screw Consent will have a significant impact on how we understand consent, sexuality, and law in the U.S. today.
Synopsis
When we talk about sex--whether great, good, bad, or unlawful--we often turn to consent as both our erotic and moral savior. We ask questions like, What counts as sexual consent? How do we teach consent to impressionable youth, potential predators, and victims? How can we make consent sexy?
What if these are all the wrong questions? What if our preoccupation with consent is hindering a safer and better sexual culture? By foregrounding sex on the social margins (bestial, necrophilic, cannibalistic, and other atypical practices), Screw Consent shows how a sexual politics focused on consent can often obscure, rather than clarify, what is wrong about wrongful sex.
Joseph J. Fischel argues that the consent paradigm, while necessary for effective sexual assault law, diminishes and perverts our ideas about desire, pleasure, and injury. In addition to the criticisms against consent leveled by feminist theorists of earlier generations, Fischel elevates three more: consent is insufficient, inapposite, and riddled with scope contradictions for regulating and imagining sex. Fischel proposes instead that sexual justice turns more productively on concepts of sexual autonomy and access. Clever, witty, and adeptly researched, Screw Consent promises to change how we understand consent, sexuality, and law in the United States today.