Foucault and Consent

In our discussion today, we entertained the idea that we are currently in a moment of historical rupture—as we experience a “crisis of consent.” This crisis would seem to speak to a wide variety of topics, from the crimes of the Catholic clergy to #MeToo movement.

If we are telling students entering college campuses that, where alcohol is involved, no consent can be given, are we not in effect saying that the “regime of consent” is of limited applicability?

From a Foucauldian perspective, there is no doubt that consent is problematic. If we are produced in and through power relations, so, presumably, is our consent. It is not “freely given”—no matter the situation (alcohol or not). In a society as diverse and unequal as ours, Foucault might have argued that a discourse of consent is simply of little utility or protection. The best we might be able to do is to consent to our consenting or our disconsenting.

France is very different than the US and other European nations on the issue of consent, as this article published last spring in The Atlantic makes clear. As the article notes, there is no “age of consent” in France—sexual relations between an adult and a minor are not, by definition, non-consensual.

The article takes a strong stance while giving helpful context. But its point is clear. The extreme case of the 11-year-old girl mentioned in the article leaves no doubt about where the author stands. So, on the one hand, the article will explain the following:

[Intellectuals like Foucault suggested] that young children possessed a right to govern their own sexuality. Under this interpretation of liberté, young children were empowered to find happiness in sexual relationships; their ability to consent was a foregone conclusion. Any effort to suggest otherwise would be a condescension, a disrespect to them as fully realized human beings.

On the other hand, the author is fairly clear that the French “were colonized by the discourse of pedocriminals.”

What, then, should entering college students be told about sex on campus? What should young children be told about sex by their parents and teachers? Is the notion of consent a helpful legal and ethical concept, or does it merely mask the dangers that are present in any form of sexual encounter?

For another take on this issue, Catherine Deneuve’s open letter critiquing the #MeToo movement might also be explored.