New Work in Philosophy: Beyond Adaptive Preferences, Rethinking Women's Complicity in their own Subordination

Invited contribution to the New Work in Philosophy blog on my work on complicity and adaptive preferences.

So, what can we say about Petronella? She is a woman who has experienced sexual harassment and yet rather than grasp this national moment to speak out against her sexist treatment, she toes the patriarchal line and defends the men who grope and harass women, suggesting it’s just a bit of fun, a natural part of courtship, boys will be boys! Petronella is complicit in upholding, reinforcing and perpetuating her own subordination. She contributes to a situation where she is turned into a sex object and subjected to unwanted interference. Even if she found some of the groping ‘flattering’, who’s to say that this will be her experience next time? Indeed, not all of Petronella’s encounters with ‘handsy men’ have been positive. She also recounts cases where men made unwanted advances and even engaged her in sex she was ‘too drunk’ to refuse. The interesting and perplexing question is then, why, given the opportunity to do otherwise, to speak out, does Petronella continue to defend a culture and a way of life that disadvantages her as a woman? Why is Petronella complicit in her own subordination?