I’ve definitely been thinking about something like this for a while recently. My thoughts were about the limits of consent as an reigning societal principle. For example, in American culture you shouldn’t touch someone without their consent. But if you need to get their attention, it’s generally considered acceptable to politely tap their shoulder once or twice so that they turn around. Or if you’re stuck in a crowded elevator or train, it’s understood as unavoidable that you might slip and accidentally bump into somebody standing next to you. The more common explanation of this is that “by being out in public, you implicitly consent to these types of touch,” but “implicit consent” is kind of… oogy to me. This maybe gets a little closer to what I’m getting towards: that we a society carve these exceptions out of consent so that human interaction still works smoothly.
(I’m thinking also about exceptions to these exceptions. For example, there’s infamous stories about people pulling earbuds out of someone’s head to get their attention, or molesters using a crowded train as a smokescreen to hide their inappropriate actions. Obviously these are people abusing the exceptions afforded them, and we as a society denounce these actions as going too far.)
I’ve definitely been thinking about something like this for a while recently. My thoughts were about the limits of consent as an reigning societal principle. For example, in American culture you shouldn’t touch someone without their consent. But if you need to get their attention, it’s generally considered acceptable to politely tap their shoulder once or twice so that they turn around. Or if you’re stuck in a crowded elevator or train, it’s understood as unavoidable that you might slip and accidentally bump into somebody standing next to you. The more common explanation of this is that “by being out in public, you implicitly consent to these types of touch,” but “implicit consent” is kind of… oogy to me. This maybe gets a little closer to what I’m getting towards: that we a society carve these exceptions out of consent so that human interaction still works smoothly.
(I’m thinking also about exceptions to these exceptions. For example, there’s infamous stories about people pulling earbuds out of someone’s head to get their attention, or molesters using a crowded train as a smokescreen to hide their inappropriate actions. Obviously these are people abusing the exceptions afforded them, and we as a society denounce these actions as going too far.)