Sex Under Pressure

Bennett Brady

November 15, 2016

Blog Post #5

PHI/ WGS 297

Sex Under Pressure

            In Sex Under Pressure Scott Anderson discusses the pressures associated with sex, and his issues with an essay by Sarah Conly. Anderson defines sexual pressure as person one pressuring person two to agree to sex although person two does not want to at first. After defining sexual pressure Anderson asks if sexual pressure is ethically suspect? In her essay Conly said sexual pressure is only ethically suspect if it involves coercive threat. She also adds that as long as no coercion involved the pressure was morally correct, and that a woman’s consent is all that matters. Anderson takes issues with Conly’s stance he argues that consent is not all that matters, and that we must look at the gender hierarchy where men play the role of a seducer, and women play the role of the target of seduction. Anderson argues that due to the gender hierarchy, and inequality a woman’s consent doesn’t mean as much. Anderson says that woman feel pressured to have a boyfriend, and have sex. Anderson concludes that even though consent is important it is not all that matters. He says that when it comes to sex if a man uses his place as being higher in the gender hierarchy to convince a woman to have sex with him it is ethically suspect even if it doesn’t involve a coercive threat.

I agree with Anderson that there is a gender hierarchy that exists that puts pressure on women to have sex but I don’t think that this makes something rape. For example, if you consider a situation where a girl in high school starts dating a guy, and a few months into their relationship they still haven’t had sex but most of her friends have, and they have asked her why she hasn’t. If she eventually decides to have sex with her boyfriend because she’s afraid hell break up with her if she doesn’t would you really consider this rape if she consented? There was definitely pressure involved but I think the pressure was more from society not from the guy. The girl in this situation wasn’t coerced into having sex with him so I think in situations like this pressure isn’t ethically suspect. I would have to agree with Conly’s definition because I think Andersons argument makes the topic of rape too broad and will undermine the validity of a woman’s consent. While every situation is different I think it would be best to apply Conly’s rationale to most cases where sexual pressure is only ethically suspect if it involves a coercive threat, and that we should focus on fixing the pressures society puts on us to have sex.