WATCH: Libertarianism is Consent Culture

Consent is an issue that gets a lot of attention these days. That’s good, considering how vital consent is in all aspects of our lives. Sexual consent tends to get the most focus and discussion.

But looking at various types of activities, relationships, and laws through the lens of consent can be helpful when it comes to setting both formal rules and informal norms.

Centering the principle of consent in personal interactions and public policy is one of the key principles of libertarian feminism, a philosophy rooted in the classical liberal values upon which both the early feminist and libertarian movements were built.

Alas, today, people adopting both labels often overlook the importance of consent in areas where it’s inconvenient.

On Monday November 30th, the third annual International Day of Consent, Feminists for Liberty hosted special panel discussion of the different contexts in which consent matters and how creating a “culture of consent” could benefit from approaching more issues from a libertarian perspective.

Speakers:

• Kat Murti (moderator) is the co-founder the executive director of Feminists for Liberty, an anti-statist and anti-sexist organization that promotes gender equality without abandoning classically liberal ideas. She is a libertarian, feminist, and activist, working to make the world a better, freer place, one day at a time.
• Elizabeth Nolan Brown is the co-founder and president of Feminists for Liberty. Elizabeth is also senior editor at Reason, where she writes regularly on the intersections of sex, speech, tech, crime, politics, panic, and civil liberties, and she has won multiple awards for her writing on the U.S. government’s war on sex.
• Avens O’Brien is a 2nd-generation libertarian activist. She’s the founder of Not That Kind of Feminist (a Facebook group for feminist & non-feminist folks to critically analyze & discuss news & culture related to feminism), and is a member of the Feminists for Liberty board of directors. 
• Cathy Reisenwitz is known for her writing on sex and relationships, including the Sex and the State newsletter and a regular column in Kink and Code. She is VP of Comms for the San Francisco Sex-Positive Democratic Club, and speaks on topics of economic freedom, Bitcoin and feminism.
• Leslee Ann Petersen stands at the intersection of mental health, alternative relationships, and liberty activism. She believes that a world based in peace and non-aggression starts with ourselves and our relations to those around us.