Copulemus in Pace: A Meditation on Rape, Affirmative Consent to Sex, and Sexual Autonomy

Social change, to be sure, is not necessarily bad. But what if affirmative consent is not biologically or psychologically sound and, for that reason, women do not even desire it? Questioning the idea that increasing women’s power will be desirable even if not founded on the “the truth,” I ask: Can and should women — to say nothing of men — say “no” to affirmative consent? I examine this question in two parts.

Part I evaluates the sexual environment today from which affirmative consent has arisen. Part II deals specifically with affirmative consent.