The cases of Jian Ghomeshi and, most-recently, the Cindy Gladue murder case, have forced us to interrogate what “consent” really means, particularly with regard to sexual assault. We’ve had to take a hard look at which victims we, as a society, believe matter — which rapes get covered in the media and which don’t? Which victims are treated with compassion and empathy and which are not? Beyond that, current feminist discourse has fetishized “choice” in many ways, latching on to a neoliberal vision of freedom that places individual choices on a pedestal, in a way that often erases larger contexts of systemic oppression and inequality.
In this episode I speak with Joanne Wright about these issues and more.
Dr. Joanne Wright completed a PhD in Political Theory and Women and Politics at York University in 1999 and currently teaches and works in the areas of contemporary feminist theory and the politics of rights and choice in the neoliberal era at the University of New Brunswick.
