Pepper Schwartz

About the author: Pepper Schwartz is a professor of sociology at the University of Washington in Seattle.

The Antioch Plan, one of numerous such plans currently being promulgated throughout the country, attempts to govern sexual conduct. The problem with the Antioch model, and others of its kind, is that it ignores the multifaceted and contradictory nature of human sexuality. Since sexuality is different for different people, rules that may work for one group of persons can prove counterproductive, unfair, and even dangerous for another group.

Men and women today are grappling with the politics of yes. What does a solid yes look like? Who gets to say it, under what conditions, and how does it look different from no? After centuries of women's being denied the ability to say no, or to...