Dynamics of sexual consent : sex, rape and the grey area in-between / Lena Gunnarsson ; translated by B.J. Woodstein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gunnarsson, Lena, author.

Contributor:

Woodstein, B. J., 1979- translator.

Standardized Title:

Samtyckesdynamiker. English

Language:

English

Swedish

Subjects (All):

Sexual consent--Psychological aspects.

Sexual consent.

Sexual ethics.

Rape.

Interpersonal relations.

Boundaries (Psychology).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 271 pages)

Edition:

English edition.

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2025.

Summary:

This book addresses questions of sexual consent using deeply personal interviews with twenty Swedish women and men of various ages and sexual orientations. In doing so, it contributes to understandings of sexual consent and sexual grey areas through its combination of conceptual rigour, analytical detail and empirical richness.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Endorsements

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction

Consent as voluntary participation

The relational, affectable human

Sexual consent in the law

Consent in research

How is consent communicated?

The complexity of wanting

Perspectives from legal philosophy

Gender and power

The relationship between normative heterosex and violence

Sex wars

BDSM and consent

Men's consent

The gender of sexual vulnerability

Beyond heterosexuality

Boundaries and grey areas

This book's contribution

2. How does consent work?

Lennart: "It's ridiculously simple signs"

Stella: "If you didn't want to, you pushed the other person away"

Nils: "In that case, I could choose to hug her instead"

Elias: "It's really tricky"

Oskar: "It's, like, you feel it in the air"

The transgressive pub milieu

Can a partner "grope"?

Will I get elbowed or will she pull down her pants?

The failed morning gift

Consent: simple and utterly complex

3. Seduction or assault?

Julia: "Then you've persuaded them until they actually want to"

Stina: "I thought he probably wanted to anyway"

Nils: "Even if your head doesn't want to, your body gets going"

Oskar: "I manipulated her into sex by exciting her"

Pernilla: "I let her take the step instead of me suggesting sex"

Gunnar: "I'm very restrained about what signals I send"

Human affectability, for good and bad

4. Giving in

Stina: "I thought that then he'd love me"

Anas: "I don't want to make anyone unhappy"

Kristina: "You don't have any reason to say no"

Nils: "As a guy, it's hard to say no"

Oskar: "Saying no has always been connected to me feeling bad"

Gunnar: "She agreed so I'd be satisfied"

The agency of the victimized

5. Giving in - because you want to.

Gunnar: "She wanted to do it for my sake"

Mariam: "You have to say yes sometimes"

Thomas: "It was a little unfair that I did it for him while he refused"

Stella: "I really worry that she wanted it because I wanted it"

Rikard: "Sex was a way of overcoming our problems"

Anders: The gender asymmetries of give-and-take sex

The larger context of "maintenance sex"

6. Sexual templates

Men's burden of taking the initiative

Sexual liberation as imperative

Women who are too much

When there is no template

The tyranny of reciprocity?

The roles of the gay male scene

Five dicks as threat or treat?

Templates versus individuals

7. Knowing what you want

Cecilia: "I've always been bad at knowing what I want"

Stina: "I didn't even reflect on whether I wanted to"

Wanting to want

Michael: "Horniness goes past fear and common sense"

Having no will

The boundary between me and you

8. Dominance and submission

Taking patriarchal degradation to its limit

Escaping the burden of wanting

Dominance and submission as a dynamic of validation

Where does the responsibility of the dominant start and end?

Norm-transgression versus self-harm

9. Beyond consent

When consent is not what is most important

Not being "sensed"

"Mentally raped"

Participating in one's own violation

What happens afterwards

Our need for respect and care

10. Sexually invulnerable men?

Nils: "Like doing the dishes when you don't want to"

Rikard: "Like when my favourite comedian isn't funny"

Elias: "As if someone had been in my home against my will"

Turning away from one's own vulnerability

The gay scene's hypermasculine ideals

"Just fuck"

The paradox of (in)vulnerability

11. We must - still - talk more about sex

In favour of a collective reflection on the grey area.

Consent can be emotionally difficult

Committed relationships do not protect people from assault and unwanted sex

The need for respect and care

People do not always know what they want

The participation of the victimized party

Same-sex dynamics of consent

The ambiguous significance of gender

Do we really need to talk more about sex in an overly sexualized world?

Appendix: Methodological approach

The participants

The interviews

Index.

Notes:

Translated from the Swedish.

"First published in Swedish by Studentlitteratur 2020."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9781003535546

9781040226476

1040226477

OCLC:

1461034571