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30 Harv. J.L. & Gender 425 (2007)
Pain, Pleasure, and Consenting Women: Exploring Feminist Responses to S/M and Its Legal Regulation in Canada through Jelineks the Piano Teacher

handle is hein.journals/hwlj30 and id is 429 raw text is: PAIN, PLEASURE, AND CONSENTING WOMEN: EXPLORING FEMINIST RESPONSES TO S/M AND ITS LEGAL REGULATION IN CANADA THROUGH JELINEK'S THE PIANO TEACHER MANEESHA DECKHA* I. INTRODUCTION Consent is a critical analytical tool in western liberal legal traditions. It is the basis, in its form of the social contract, for foundational theories of justice and underpins a hallmark of the core liberal precondition for human flourishing: autonomy.' Under liberal legalism, choosing to do something typically legitimates that activity as long as it does not harm others.2 Con- versely, being forced to do something is typically perceived as an infringe- ment of personhood. For feminists, an example that comes easily to mind to demonstrate the significance of consent, and the principle of autonomy that underlies it, is the difference between sex and rape, a distinction that turns on consent. The absence of consent turns a socially approved and even cele- brated act of love and expression into an act of violence. It is no wonder, then, that feminist writing on consent in this particular area has often been concerned with ensuring the presence of real consent, impugning the idea of constructive or implied consent to sex, and emphasizing instead that no means no, to expunge long-standing rape myths and norms about female sexuality that have made women's bodies vulnerable to violation.3 Feminists have been worried that sexual assault laws will look errone- ously to context to construe consent from conduct where none existed ver- bally. At the same time, feminists have also challenged liberal legalism's * Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Victoria. I would like to thank all of the participants at the panel at the Seventh Annual Conference for the Association of the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where this argument was first presented, Susan Heinzelman who heard the presenta- tion and encouraged the writing of this Article, and Rebecca Johnson for reading an earlier draft. I am grateful to the Editors of the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender for their care in the editing process and to Layli Antinuk, Alison Cowan, and Eli Walker for excellent research and editing assistance. I thank the University of Victoria Faculty of Law for research assistance support. 'See MARTHA NUSSBAUM, FRONTIERS OF JUSTICE: DISABILITY, NATIONALITY, SPECIES MEMBERSHIP 2-4 (2006); Jennifer Nedelsky, Reconceiving Autonomy: Sources, Thoughts, and Possibilities, I YALE J.L. & FEMINISM 7, 7 (1989). 2 See Robin West, Desperately Seeking A Moralist, 29 HARV. J.L. & GENDER 1, 20 (2006). I See Kevin Bonnycastle, Rape Uncodified: Reconsidering Bill C-49 Amendments to Canadian Sexual Assault Laws, in LAW AS A GENDERING PRACTICE 60 (Dorothy E. Chunn & Dany Lacombe eds., 2000).

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