I don’t think that the only possible conditions are either a). “the patriarchy doesn’t exist”, or b). “the patriarchy’s control over everyone is total and complete, people are zombies”.
Agreed. A useful line of questioning for eridu might be “How much coercion is acceptable in sexual relations, given that essentially any outside causal influence can be glossed as some finite amount of coercion?”
On the one hand I think it’s an excellent point the feminists make that implicit/explicit consent to sex is not the end of the story ethically, if the consent is seen to be coerced by external factors (e.g., “Our relationship depends on his sexual satisfaction, and he has made me financially dependent on our continued relationship”).
On the other hand, it’s going too far if we say that the ONLY ethically acceptable motivation for sex is one’s own purely hedonistic desires (which are the only motivations I can think of that CANNOT be glossed as coercive).
one’s own purely hedonistic desires (which are the only motivations I can think of that CANNOT be glossed as coercive).
Sure they can! Someone has wired up your pleasure center to respond to doing what they want you to do, even though that course of action is ultimately self-destructive for you.
(Fictional example: the tasp in various Niven stories.)
“How much coercion is acceptable in sexual relations, given that essentially any outside causal influence can be glossed as some finite amount of coercion?”
Agreed. A useful line of questioning for eridu might be “How much coercion is acceptable in sexual relations, given that essentially any outside causal influence can be glossed as some finite amount of coercion?”
On the one hand I think it’s an excellent point the feminists make that implicit/explicit consent to sex is not the end of the story ethically, if the consent is seen to be coerced by external factors (e.g., “Our relationship depends on his sexual satisfaction, and he has made me financially dependent on our continued relationship”).
On the other hand, it’s going too far if we say that the ONLY ethically acceptable motivation for sex is one’s own purely hedonistic desires (which are the only motivations I can think of that CANNOT be glossed as coercive).
Sure they can! Someone has wired up your pleasure center to respond to doing what they want you to do, even though that course of action is ultimately self-destructive for you.
(Fictional example: the tasp in various Niven stories.)
Agreed; that’s a good way to put it.