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18 Rev. Const. Stud. 161 (2013)
Marital Rape, Polygamy, and Prostitution: Trading Sex Equality for Agency and Choice

handle is hein.journals/revicos18 and id is 167 raw text is: Marital Rape, Polygamy, and Prostitution: Trading Sex Equality for Agency and Choice? Janine Benedet* In this article, the author considers three cases in which criminal laws apply to gendered harms: sexual assault, polygamy and prostitution. The first of these, the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in R v. JA was framed as being about the legal recognition ofadvance consent to sexual activity while unconscious. While the Court reached a positive result/or women in rejecting this doctrine, it did so in a way that obscured the realities for women of domestic violence and sexual assault in spousal relationships. Instead the case was framed by both sides in the language of choice, agency and autonomy. The author argues that similar tensions are present in the Charter challenges to the criminal laws on polygamy and prostitution. In the Polygamy Reference, the BC Supreme Court was unconvinced by evidence of individual choice, instead focusing on the gendered harms of polygamy as practiced. In Bedford, the Ontario Court of Appeal treated prostitution as a question of women's individual choice, leading to a focus on the locations in which women choose to prostitute rather than choice Ofmen to buy sex or the inequalities that drive women into prostitution. The author argues that all of these practices should be understood as causing gendered harms that can justif3 legal intervention to address them. Dans cet article, I'auteure examine trois cas oh les lois criminelles s'appliquent aux maux sexues : l'agression sexuelle, la polygamie et la prostitution. Lepremier, lejugement de la Cour suprlme du Canada dans R c. J.A., a eteabordd du point de vue de la reconnaissance juridique du consentement h une activite sexuelle donne avant une periode d'inconscience. Bien que la Cour soit arrivie h un rdsultat positifpour les femmes en rejetant cette doctrine, sa fafon de faire a obscurci les realitis des femmes qui connaissent la violence familiale et lagression sexuelle dans leur relation conjugale. Les deux parties ont plutdt parld de choix, de libre arbitre et d'autonomie. L'aureure sourient qu'il existe des tensions similaires dans les contestations fondees sur la Charte aux lois criminelles relatives h la polygamie et la prostitution. Dans son renvoi sur la polygamie, la Cour supreme de la Colombie-Britannique n'a pas ete convaincue par la presence de choix personnel, se concentrant plutat sur les maux sexues lies h la polygamie tel que pratiqu. Dans Bedford, la Cour d'appel de l'Ontario a considerd la prostitution comme une question de choix personnel des fimmes, ce qui a mend la cour d accorder la prioriti aux endroits oh les frmmes choisissent de se prostituer plutot que sur le choix des hommes d'acheter le sexe ou les inegalits qui poussent les femmes h se prostituer. L'auteure soutient qu'il devrait etre entendu que toutes ces pratiques causent des maux sexues pouvant justifer une intervention juridique pour les aborder. Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia. . I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and Rebecca Coad (JD 2013) for her research assistance. 161

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