"Next Time" Means "No": Sexual Consent and the Structure of Refusals

"Next Time" Means "No": Sexual Consent and the Structure of Refusals

Blog Article

This paper emphasizes a need to recognize sexual refusals both in public discourse and in the context of particular interactions.I draw on sociolinguistic work on the Slippers structure of refusals to illuminate a much-discussed case of alleged sexual violence as well as to inform how we ought to think and talk about sexual consent and refusal more generally.I argue on empirical and ideological grounds that we ought to impute the same significance to refusals uttered in sexual contexts as we do to those uttered in nonsexual contexts.

Finally, I propose an amendment to Chromium the definition of affirmative consent that would put it in line with the conclusions drawn in the rest of the paper.