"Allt annat än ett ja..." : En genusvetenskaplig analys av det sexuella samtyckets konstruktion i lagstiftningsprocessens publikationer

Sammanfattning: In 2014, the Swedish Government decided to review the sexual offences legislation, in order to introduce a consent-based regulation. The main argument in support of a consent-based legislation is that it will change the norms and attitudes regarding gender and sexuality, thereby decreasing the occurrence of sexual violence in society. A consent-based legislation emphasizes the importance of sexual consent within sexual relations, thus giving such legislation a potential to construct a more just and gender-equal sexual culture. Sexual consent is, however, not reducible to a simply “yes” but rather consisting of different elements and dependent on the context in which it is communicated. The aim of this thesis is to examine how the sexual consent is constructed in the publications included in the legislative process and analyze this construction from a heteronormative perspective.  Using the sexual script theory developed by John Gagnon and William Simon demonstrates how sexual consent is constructed in terms of which subject consents to what acts in what context and to what purpose. Analysing the construction of sexual consent from a heteronormative perspective demonstrates how the consent-based legislation both challenge and reproduce normative ideas of sex and sexual culture.  Examining the construction of sexual consent through script theory demonstrates how heteronormative understandings of sexual acts and subjects influence the understanding of which subjects are able to consent to what actions. The construction of consent is characterized by a division between the legislative understanding of sexual offences as a crime against a genderless individual, and a gendered understanding of sexual violence as a part of men’s violence against women. In theory, there is a clear understanding of the difference between consensual and non-consensual sex, but when situated in a heteronormative context these two becomes harder to separate. Therefor, the potential of challenging normative understandings of sexuality of gender seems limited, even though it takes further research in order to establish the actual effects of the legislation.