Queer Sexual Encounters : Sexual consent, unintelligibility and paradoxicality

Abstract

Research debates about sexual consent have been topical during the past years, as the legal reformation regarding sexual offences entered into force from the beginning of 2023 in Finland. The new legislation recognizes sexual consent as the determinator for making a distinction between agreed upon sexual acts and sexual violence. For now, there has not been much research of the topic in the Finnish context either research that would address the experiences and knowledge of people who are minoritized because of their genders or sexualities. It is essential to address the topic of sexual consent from the viewpoint of people who are minoritized because of their sexualities and genders as the prior research has primarily focused on the experiences of cisgender and heterosexual majority.

In my thesis I investigated the experiences of queer people who are minoritized because of their sexualities and genders and how they negotiate sexual encounters with their sexual partners. In my research I used qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews as a data collection method in nine interviews. The data was analyzed with the use of reflexive thematic analysis. Based on the analysis, I formed three themes that corresponded to my research questions. Within reflexive thematic analysis, I used relativist ontological underpinning and constructionism and poststructuralism as my epistemological principles. I used theoretical concepts of minoritization and intersectionality to guide my analysis.

According to my research findings, queer individuals actively aim to resist, break and deconstruct the hegemonic heterosexual scripts in their own sexual encounters. Based on the research findings, it became evident that even though the interviewees were aware of sexual consent as a concept, they understood the negotiation process as something related to 'knowledge' and verbal communication, rather than something connected to gendered or intersectional power dynamics. In the end, my research findings demonstrate the self-defeating effects of internalized forms of oppressions that made the interviewees unable to exercise their sexual agency and rights to full extent in the context of their sexual encounters.

My research findings illustrate that people who are minoritized because of their genders or sexualities face unique challenges in their sexual encounters. Seemingly, queer people and their unique experiences and knowledge are ignored to the extent it has serious repercussions for them in their sexual encounters. Prior research about the topic of sexual consent has rarely applied intersectional analysis, which would be urgently needed when conducting research about sexualities, sexual consent or how negotiation happens in sexual encounters. My research adds up to previous debates on sexual consent as well as engages critically in feminist epistemological issues related to sexual consent from the viewpoint of queer people. My research findings further shed light on how sexual consent as a concept and intelligibility is primarily constructed to enforce compulsory heterosexuality and at the same time neglecting the people who do not adhere to hegemonic heterosexual constructs.