Consent, Open Relationships, and Sex-Positivity

One of the difficulties I’ve seen when it comes to discussions and debates around sexual practices and communities of erotic affiliation centers on the notion of consent.

On one side, there are the folks who bring everything back to the question of the individual. The general argument is that if a person consents to a particular act, then there isn’t any reason that they shouldn’t be allowed to do it. Yes, this is a vast oversimplification of a much more complex statement, but it often boils down to the notion that people should be able to anything they want, as long as they and their partner(s) consent to it.

On the other hand, there are people who argue that, in a society that limits choices depending on one’s sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, class, culture, physical ability, etc., there really isn’t as much choice as some people claim. They rightly point out that most people are within some groups that are dominant and some groups that are oppressed. The more one moves within dominant groups, the more choices one has and the more choices one has and the easier it is to bring everything back to the consent of the individual.

I get both sides of this and I would really like to see more nuanced discussions. For example, consent is often framed as only something that the people in a given sexual situation need think about. But I think that the consent of everyone affected by an action should have input into the decision. I have no problem with people who enjoy being watched while they have sex by people who want to watch them. I have a problem with people who have sex in public in order to elicit reactions from people who have not consented to be part of their scene. I have no problem with people who have multiple sexual partners. I have a problem with people who deceive their partners in order to do it because they’re not letting their partners have full knowledge and choice. We can open up a discussion about the effects of the sums of people’s choices on the larger society, but only if we are willing to look at this from the perspective of both the individual and the group. We need to see both the forest and the trees.

So I was really excited to read Critique of Pure Relationships: On Consent and Compulsory Monogamy when it showed up in my twitter feed. It’s an impressive article that weaves together the socio-cultural factors and the individual influences that shape and define monogamy as the gold standard for relationships:

Linking together enforced monogamy, the nuclear family, the gender binary, jealousy, community, language, and economics is exactly the sort of thing that gets left out of most of the discussions around open relationships and sex-positivity. Wendy O-Matik’s Redefining Our Relationships: Guidelines for Responsible Open Relationships is one of the few exceptions and it’s definitely worth a read. That doesn’t mean that the other books, like Opening Up and The Ethical Slut aren’t great guide. They focus on the how-to side of things, without as much exploration of the contextual forces that shape how we think and feel about relationships.

Not that I, or these folks, are advocating that monogamy isn’t a valid option. In their own words (sorry for the long quote, but I just love this):

This is what I think sex-positivity is all about. Recognizing that any relationship structure and any sexual practice is both an individual choice and shaped by the options that are presented or that one can envision. Believing that when people are free to actively and enthusiastically consent to whatever sexual expression is authentic to them, they will be able to craft their lives to meet their ever-shifting needs and desires. Acknowledging that the socio-cultural context in which we move influences both what possibilities we each have and while possibilities we can imagine. And moving towards a society in which freedom is truly celebrated, by confronting our own prejudices and biases, as well as those of our families, our communities, and the larger culture.

Give the full article a read. It’s worth it.