Contributions From Psychology to Effectively Use, and Achieving Sexual Consent

Psychology related to areas such as gender, language, education and violence has provided scientific knowledge that contributes to reducing coercive social relationships, and to expanding freedom in sexual-affective relationships. Nonetheless, today there are new challenges that require additional d...

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Main Authors: Ramon Flecha, Gema Tomás, Ana Vidu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-02-01
Series:Frontiers in Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00092/full
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author Ramon Flecha
Gema Tomás
Ana Vidu
author_facet Ramon Flecha
Gema Tomás
Ana Vidu
author_sort Ramon Flecha
collection DOAJ
description Psychology related to areas such as gender, language, education and violence has provided scientific knowledge that contributes to reducing coercive social relationships, and to expanding freedom in sexual-affective relationships. Nonetheless, today there are new challenges that require additional developments. In the area of consent, professionals from different fields, such as law, gender, and education, are in need of evidence differentiating human communication that produces consent, and those conditions that coerce. Up to now, consent has been focused on verbal language, for example, “no means no,” or “anything less than yes is no.” Despite the fact that focusing consent on verbal language is a very important part of the problem, it does not solve most of the issues currently raised, like the famous case of “La Manada” in Spain. This article presents the most recent results of a new line of research, which places the problem and the solution in communicative acts, not only in speech acts. Even though there might be a “yes” in a sexual-affective relationship, there might not be consent, and it is indeed a coercive relationship if that “yes” has been given in a relationship determined by institutional power or by interactive power. Institutional power may occur if whoever made the proposal for the relationship is a person in charge of the process of selecting personnel in a company, and one of the candidates is the person who receives the proposal. Interactive power may occur if whoever makes the proposal is situated in an equal or inferior position in the company to the person receiving it, but the former threatens sextortion the latter. The potential social impact of this research has been already shown in the cases analyzed for this study.
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spelling doaj.art-603d38d2625344fe9ec21dd37cf98eab2022-12-21T22:54:04ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782020-02-011110.3389/fpsyg.2020.00092506462Contributions From Psychology to Effectively Use, and Achieving Sexual ConsentRamon Flecha0Gema Tomás1Ana Vidu2Department of Sociology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, SpainSchool of Law, University of Deusto, Bilbao, SpainSchool of Law, University of Deusto, Bilbao, SpainPsychology related to areas such as gender, language, education and violence has provided scientific knowledge that contributes to reducing coercive social relationships, and to expanding freedom in sexual-affective relationships. Nonetheless, today there are new challenges that require additional developments. In the area of consent, professionals from different fields, such as law, gender, and education, are in need of evidence differentiating human communication that produces consent, and those conditions that coerce. Up to now, consent has been focused on verbal language, for example, “no means no,” or “anything less than yes is no.” Despite the fact that focusing consent on verbal language is a very important part of the problem, it does not solve most of the issues currently raised, like the famous case of “La Manada” in Spain. This article presents the most recent results of a new line of research, which places the problem and the solution in communicative acts, not only in speech acts. Even though there might be a “yes” in a sexual-affective relationship, there might not be consent, and it is indeed a coercive relationship if that “yes” has been given in a relationship determined by institutional power or by interactive power. Institutional power may occur if whoever made the proposal for the relationship is a person in charge of the process of selecting personnel in a company, and one of the candidates is the person who receives the proposal. Interactive power may occur if whoever makes the proposal is situated in an equal or inferior position in the company to the person receiving it, but the former threatens sextortion the latter. The potential social impact of this research has been already shown in the cases analyzed for this study.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00092/fullsexual consentsocial impactcommunicative actssexual relationships institutional powerinteractive power
spellingShingle Ramon Flecha
Gema Tomás
Ana Vidu
Contributions From Psychology to Effectively Use, and Achieving Sexual Consent
Frontiers in Psychology
sexual consent
social impact
communicative acts
sexual relationships institutional power
interactive power
title Contributions From Psychology to Effectively Use, and Achieving Sexual Consent
title_full Contributions From Psychology to Effectively Use, and Achieving Sexual Consent
title_fullStr Contributions From Psychology to Effectively Use, and Achieving Sexual Consent
title_full_unstemmed Contributions From Psychology to Effectively Use, and Achieving Sexual Consent
title_short Contributions From Psychology to Effectively Use, and Achieving Sexual Consent
title_sort contributions from psychology to effectively use and achieving sexual consent
topic sexual consent
social impact
communicative acts
sexual relationships institutional power
interactive power
url https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00092/full
work_keys_str_mv AT ramonflecha contributionsfrompsychologytoeffectivelyuseandachievingsexualconsent
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AT anavidu contributionsfrompsychologytoeffectivelyuseandachievingsexualconsent