Institutional Power and The Sexual Sphere
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Dr Kugelberg, Nuffield College, will present her paper "Institutional Power and The Sexual Sphere."
Abstract
Feminist theorists have long shown that sexual life is institutionally organised and fundamentally unjust. While recent debates have focused on consent as a tool to deliver justice, an increasing number of theorists doubt that in a patriarchal society criminal law can do this on its own. But what, if anything, should institutions do? I argue that institutions have duties to provide adequate social conditions in which people can form, pursue and leave sexual relationships. This goes beyond more minimal claims to noninterference, while rejecting any right to sex or desire. Drawing on cases from Europe and East Asia, I show that the distinctive features of the sexual sphere, rather than placing it beyond institutional concern, call for political and legal responses tailored to it.
