Rethinking Consent and Responsibility for Unwanted Sex

FAIN: FT-291369-23

Julie Tannenbaum
Pomona College (Claremont, CA 91711-4434)

Research and writing one chapter of a book in practical ethics on the moral responsibility of sexual interactions.

Many men and women, college aged and beyond, report consenting to sexual activities that they did not actually want to have with their partner or date. Such sexual encounters raise questions of legal and moral responsibility and are the focus of my book project with Stavroula Glezakos of Wake Forest University. Despite the popularity of an enthusiastic consent standard for permissible sexual interactions, we show this requirement cannot properly settle the question of who is responsible, and for what. We offer instead an innovative account of sexual consent and responsibility that is based on a critique of state laws and institutional (campus and workplace) policies while engaging with the theories of philosophers, legal scholars, policy advocates, and the findings of psychologists. We believe this cross-disciplinary approach will engage a wide range of readers, including academic philosophers, policy makers, advocates, and individuals navigating sexual interactions.