And costumes on display.

Madonnas and whores!

Sort of like...consensual S&M without a safe word.

That was my other example! Along with mummification. But I like to share my wilder fanfiction experiences with others, as any Somervillain who's listened to the giant cat story when I've been drinking can tell you.

I had real thoughts yesterday, but they seem to have drifted away. Sorry.

And stuff about Shakespearean theatre, where boys played girls, then there could be all the women who have played Hamlet.

Anyway. Teppy, you around? I was thinking on the way home about your (right?) point about one not being able to consent to sex with someone before meeting them. It certainly read like something you've given a lot of thought to, so I was wondering if you could elucidate on that. It seems to me that one could consent in advance, but it's not something I've considered at length.

You can't consent to having sex with someone you've never met, because consent implies full knowledge beforehand.

Could one be said to consent to whatever happened during that time?

Sort of like...consensual S&M without a safe word.

Since it's an unrealistic fanfic scenario, I'm just going to say NO, it is not, and leave it at that.

consent implies full knowledge beforehand.

How full is full? You can consent to sex with someone you've just met, I think. How much knowledge is necessary before you can be said to be consenting?

If you can't identify who's going to shag you, I don't think you can consent, next-guy-to-buy-me-a-drink notwithstanding.

How full is full? You can consent to sex with someone you've just met, I think. How much knowledge is necessary before you can be said to be consenting?

You need to know who they are, for one thing.

Maybe I'm being too particular, but if I'm going to let some guy stick his dick in me, I want to at least know who he is before it gets started.

t edit Or, what ita said.

But don't prostitutes in a brothel basically consent to whoever shows up? Isn't that intrinsic to that gig?

That is, they're consenting to the job requirements whoever that is.

Similar to...a soldier accepting that he will kill people in battle. Not making individual decisions about who deserves to live or die, but accepting that killing is part of the job.

Then again the point of the Nuremberg trials and My Lai is that even soldiers are not relieved of moral responsibility because they're under orders.

In theory hookers should be able to say no in the moment, but they work in a morally grey (at best) and unregulated world.

I'd think that if they keep the money, yeah, they need to sex the guy, but do they have to take the dosh?

Surely it depends on the brothel, she says, having just watched some episodes of Deadwood.

But don't prostitutes in a brothel basically consent to whoever shows up? Isn't that intrinsic to that gig?

They agree to terms of a job, not an intimate relationship. I think there's an important distinction there.

"But Steph," someone will say, "the 'job' IS sex! If they agree to the job, they agree to have sex!" And you know what? I don't think that prostitutes in a brothel *can* consent to have sex with whoever shows up. That they *do* is beside the point.