Belknap Press
The Joy of Consent: A Philosophy of Good Sex
Key Metrics
- Manon Garcia
- Belknap Press
- Hardcover
- 9780674279131
- -
- -
- Philosophy > Ethics & Moral Philosophy
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
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 juridical litmus test, Garcia adds a fresh voice to the struggle for freedom, equality, and security from sexist violence.
Author Bio
I am a philosopher and my primary research is in political and moral feminist philosophy. I also work on questions in 20th Century French philosophy, critical theory, philosophy of social sciences (esp. economics), and phenomenology.
Currently I am a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and in July 2021, I will become an assistant professor of philosophy at Yale University.
In October 2018, Flammarion published my first book, On ne naît pas soumise, on le devient. I authored a revised and expanded English version of the book entitled We Are Not Born Submissive: How Patriarchy Shapes Women's Lives, published by Princeton University Press in March '21. The book is currently being translated in Spanish, German, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. You can find more information on the reception of the book on my press page.
I have also edited a reader of feminist philosophy entitled Textes clés de philosophie féministe published in January 2021 by Vrin. This reader is made of ten seminal papers of feminist philosophy, five of them translated for the first time in French. I also authored significant introductions.
I am a former student of the École Normale Supérieure de Paris, I hold a Master in Economics and Public Policy (Sciences Po/Polytechnique/ENSAE), and I passed the agrégation in philosophy. I received my Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2017. Since then, I was an Edmond J. Safra Post-Doctoral Fellow-in-Residence and a Lecturer of Philosophy at Harvard University, then a Harper-Schmidt Fellow and a Collegiate Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago.
Source: manon-garcia.com
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