No, according to legal scholar Robin L. West:
The rather inescapable fact is that much of the misery women endure is fully "consensual." That is, much of women's suffering is a product of a state of being which was itself brought into being through a transaction to which women unquestionably tendered consent. [...] Put affirmatively, the conditions which create our misery-unwanted pregnancies, violent and abusive marriages, sexual harassment on the job-are often traceable to acts of consent. Women-somewhat uniquely-consent to their misery. An ethical standard which ties value to the act of consent by presumptively assuming that people consent to their circumstances so as to bring about their own happiness-and by so doing thereby create value-leaves these miserable consensual relationships beyond criticism. West, Robin L., The Difference in Women’s Hedonic Lives: A Phenomenological Critique of Feminist Legal Theory (May 25, 2011). Wisconsin Women's Law Journal, Vol. 15, 2000; Georgetown Public Law Research Paper No. 11-53. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1847983
In other words, maybe consent is not the bridge that gets you from white across fifty shades of grey.
Maybe "consent" is a fiction that lets us cross the line while ignoring that we're hurting each other.
