50 Years of LGBTQ Scholarship at APSA Mini-Conference: Democracy in the Bedroom

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Part of Mini-Conference

• 50 Years of LGBTQ Scholarship at APSA Mini-Conference

Session Description

This roundtable considers the strengths and limitations of democracy when applied to one specific setting: the bedroom. Bringing together political theorists who work on this question from diverse methodologies, it asks whether democracy works as a paradigm to think about sex. In doing so, it hopes to shed light on issues within both democratic and feminist political theory, ranging from consent to sexual violence. Seven groups of questions will serve as the basis for our discussion:

1) How does democratic political consent relate to sexual consent? Might the liberal roots of consent compromise the emancipatory potential of consent in the bedroom?
2) How does the language of democratic rights influence our contemporary discourse on sex (Srinivasan 2021)? Should critiques of rights inform sexual politics?
3) The bedroom has historically been thought of as a state of exception to democracy. Are there any good arguments to suggest it still should be?
4) If sex should be best understood as “a conversation” (Garcia 2023), what conditions need to be in place to have that conversation democratically?
5) More broadly: What might democratic sex look like? What kinds of democratic theories does – or could – it rest on?
6) Are there useful political alternatives to democracy in the bedroom, e.g. consensus?
7) What does it mean to uphold democratic norms when determining how to engage in social and political spheres with people who have committed or have been accused of acts of sexual abuse?

In addressing these questions, roundtable participants will reflect on the conference’s themes of democratic retrenchment, renovation, and reimagination and offer new insights into the complex interplay between democratic and feminist theories.

Sub Unit

• Division 47: Sexuality & Politics

Chair

• Katie Ebner-Landy Harvard University Society of Fellows

Presenters

• Megan Gallagher University of Alabama

• Isabelle Laurenzi Yale University

• Micol Bez Northwestern University

• Zoe Moss Southwestern University