Penile Imperialism: The Male Sex Right and Women’s Subordination | Everyday Sex: Coercion and Consent (PDF Chapter 2)
In this chapter, Sheila Jeffreys shows how the male sex right is expressed in heterosexual marriage and cohabitation. She argues that though most women in marriage and in heterosexual relationships now have the right to accuse their male partners of rape, the male sex right, or conjugal right as it was called in law, still appertains. The chapter is concerned with the sexual encounters that are not generally called rape, but unwanted or coercive sex, or here, because they are so normative, ‘everyday’ sex. The power relationship of male domination and female subordination constructs the sex that happens in heterosexual relations and the exercise of various forms of force ensure that women do not have the right to self-determination in relation to their bodies. The scope of this chapter is limited to ‘conjugal rights’ in the dominant culture of the UK, US and Australia.
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