Sexual violence is prevalent in our society. We know this directly because of the courage survivors have shown in facing their perpetrators in courts, online and in the public eye. But society is hesitant, incapable or unwilling to hold offenders to account: they keep their jobs — or get promoted to powerful positions — and survivors frequently end up being on trial themselves. Furthermore, mainstream discourse and thinking about sexual violence and consent are limited to problematic op-eds, oversimplified viral videos or tweets. These will not end sexual violence.

The contributors to Dis/Consent argue that the conversations happening today around consent and sexual violence ignore and erase the multiple forms of oppression that are part and parcel of sexual violence. They highlight the relationships between our social structures, social institutions and individual experiences of sexual consent and sexual violence. And because sexism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia and ableism are deeply intertwined with sexual violence, it will not be undone without systemic, anti-oppressive, decolonizing change.

Refusing to reduce intersectionality to a hasty footnote, this volume examines the construction of sexual violence and consent at diverse intersections of identity and includes a diversity of perspectives and positionalities rarely found in conversations about sexual violence and sexual consent.

KelleyAnne Malinen is a professor in the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Mount Saint Vincent University.

KelleyAnne Malinen's profile page