This episode gets an enthusiastic yes from us. In episode 85 of Overthink, Ellie and David dive into the crux of sexual consent. They work through some of the earliest attempts on the part of American universities at developing a sexual consent policy, before unpacking the fiery debates surrounding consent today — ranging from complex legal cases as well as instances of “gray rape.” They probe the limits of popular understandings of consent with cases involving intense physical pain, and cases which undo the very stability of our idea of consent. (Can one meaningfully consent to one’s own murder?) They explore Ellie’s own proposal for rethinking our idea of consent. Is consent contractual? Performative? Magic? And, should it really be the central tenet of our sexual ethics?

Content warning: this episode contains graphic discussions of sexual violence and bodily harm.
Check out the episode's extended cut here!

Works Discussed

Linda Martín Alcoff, Rape and Resistance
Ellie Anderson, “A Phenomenological Approach to Sexual Consent” and “The Limits of Consent in Sexual Ethics”
Katherine Angel, Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again
Ann Cahill, Rethinking Rape
Heidi Hurd, “The Moral Magic of Consent”
Jonathan Ichikawa, “Presupposition and Consent”
Joseph Fischer, Screw Consent
Joan McGregor, Is it Rape?
Caleb Ward and Ellie Anderson, “The Ethical Significance of Being an Erotic Object”
Bari Weiss, “Aziz Ansari Is Guilty. Of Not Being a Mind Reader”
Is It Date Rape? (1991 SNL Skit)

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