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Building a Consent Culture and "Doing" Consent: The Impact of Interactional Scripting Processes on Gender Inequality

Heddens, Kayla L
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1658436645188734

Abstract Details

2022, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology.
Gender scholars contend that accountability for "doing" gender within interactions between individuals is how the gender structure can be challenged or "redone" (Connell 2010; Hollander 2013, 2018; Risman and Davis 2013; West and Zimmerman 1987). Some scholars point to consent culture practiced by the BDSM (Bondage/Discipline, Domination/Submission, Sadism/masochism) community, as a model to teach consent and accountability (Buchwald, Fletcher, and Roth 2005; Cagwin 2018; Dixie 2017; Harding 2015; Pitagora 2013; Stryker, Queen, and Penny 2017). Other research indicates that the BDSM community might "undo" gender, but more likely simultaneously challenges and reproduces gender inequality (Banerjee, Merchant, and Sharma 2018; Deutsch 2007; Simula and Sumerau 2017). However, little literature focuses on how consent is socially constructed to include interactional accountability that might challenge gender inequality within BDSM. In this research, I consider how interactional consent scripts socially construct consent culture, how "doing" consent in the kink community provides an empirical example of "redoing" gender across the gender spectrum, and how BDSM identifying individuals and communities experience the conflict between consent culture and the hegemonic gender structure. I found that socially constructed interactional consent scripts guide interactions in BDSM through stringent rules that aim to maintain agency and bodily autonomy through enthusiastic consent, boundaries, and limits. The BDSM community reinforces consent scripts with strict social control and accountability through formal and informal methods including social sanctions and reputations. I found that interactional consent scripts form the basis of "doing" consent, where individuals enact consent scripts in their interactions to uphold consent culture much like "doing" gender upholds the gender structure. Individuals in BDSM across the gender spectrum shared how “doing" consent allowed them to "redo" gender and sexual scripts by giving them more agency and bodily autonomy and lowering accountability for gender. However, the conflict between the gender structure and consent culture leads to identity dilemmas among participants, confusion in interactions, and experiences of marginalization and fetishization perpetrated by those who attempt to "do" gender while "doing" consent. While I provide insight into how "doing" consent redoes gender, ultimately the gender structure is both perpetuated and deconstructed within the BDSM consent culture.
Tiffany Taylor (Advisor)
Kathryn Feltey (Committee Member)
Clare Stacey (Committee Member)
Katrina Bloch (Committee Member)
Suzanne Holt (Committee Member)
214 p.
Sociology
Consent, Consent Culture, Interactional Scripting, Consent Scripts, Gender, Sexuality, Doing Consent, Doing Gender, Redoing Gender, BDSM, Kink, Accountability, Agency, Bodily Autonomy, Boundaries, Subculture, Deviance

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Heddens, K. L. (2022). Building a Consent Culture and "Doing" Consent: The Impact of Interactional Scripting Processes on Gender Inequality [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1658436645188734

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Heddens, Kayla. Building a Consent Culture and "Doing" Consent: The Impact of Interactional Scripting Processes on Gender Inequality. 2022. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1658436645188734.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Heddens, Kayla. "Building a Consent Culture and "Doing" Consent: The Impact of Interactional Scripting Processes on Gender Inequality." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1658436645188734

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1658436645188734
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© 2022, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.