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The Joy of Consent

A Philosophy of Good Sex

Manon Garcia

$49.95

Hardback

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English
Harvard University Press
09 February 2024
""From the bedroom to the classroom to the courtroom, 'consent' is a key term in our contemporary sexual ethics. In this timely reexamination, Manon Garcia deftly reveals the hidden complexities of consent and proposes how to reconceptualize it as a tool of liberation."" -Amia Srinivasan, author of The Right to Sex

A feminist philosopher argues that consent is not only a highly imperfect legal threshold but also an underappreciated complement of good sex.

In the age of #MeToo, consent has become the ultimate answer to problems of sexual harassment and violence: as long as all parties agree to sex, the act is legitimate. Critics argue that consent, and its awkward confirmation, rob sex of its sexiness. But those objections are answered with charges that to dislike the consent regime is merely to defend a masculine erotics of silence and mystery, a pillar of patriarchy.

In The Joy of Consent, French philosopher Manon Garcia upends the assumptions that underlie this very American debate, reframing consent as an ally of pleasure rather than a legalistic killjoy. In doing so, she rejects conventional wisdom on all sides. As a legal norm, consent can prove rickety: consent alone doesn't make sex licit-adults engaged in BDSM are morally and legally suspect even when they consent. And nonconsensual sex is not, as many activists insist, always rape. People often agree to sex because it is easier than the alternative, she argues, challenging the simplistic equation between consent and noncoercion.

Drawing on sources rarely considered together-from Kantian ethics to kink practices-Garcia offers an alternative framework grounded in commitments to autonomy and dignity. While consent, she argues, should not be a definitive legal test, it is essential to realizing intimate desire, free from patriarchal domination. Cultivating consent makes sex sexy. By appreciating consent as the way toward an ethical sexual flourishing rather than a legal litmus test, Garcia adds a fresh voice to the struggle for freedom, equality, and security from sexist violence.
By:  
Imprint:   Harvard University Press
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 210mm,  Width: 140mm,  Spine: 24mm
Weight:   476g
ISBN:   9780674279131
ISBN 10:   0674279131
Pages:   272
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Manon Garcia is the author of We Are Not Born Submissive: How Patriarchy Shapes Women’s Lives. A Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and a junior professor at Freie Universität Berlin, she has taught at the University of Chicago and Yale University. She received the Prix des Rencontres Philosophiques de Monaco for the best book of philosophy published in France in 2022.

Reviews for The Joy of Consent: A Philosophy of Good Sex

Thought-provoking…Garcia argues that we need an emancipatory sexual politics based on a deeper understanding of how social norms generate sexual injustices. Ultimately, she advocates a contextually sensitive approach to consent, a notion that responds to the specifics of sexual situations and is relational in nature. -- Anna Katharina Schaffner * Los Angeles Review of Books * From the bedroom to the classroom to the courtroom, ‘consent’ is a key term in our contemporary sexual ethics. In this timely reexamination, Manon Garcia deftly reveals the hidden complexities of consent and proposes how to reconceptualize it as a tool of liberation. -- Amia Srinivasan, author of <i>The Right to Sex</i> A brilliant interrogation of the complexities of consent. Manon Garcia shows us that consent can be liberating—for reasons we might not have expected—in enabling good, joyful sex. A must-read. -- Kate Manne, author of <i>Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women</i> Not since Catharine MacKinnon has a thinker so lucidly and compellingly challenged the way we think about women’s sexual oppression. Manon Garcia spells out for us what we already should have known: that our current understanding of consent is not doing the work that we need it to do and that we have the power to ameliorate it. This book is no less than a blueprint for a new feminist revolution. -- Nancy Bauer, author of <i>How to Do Things with Pornography</i>


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