Hello and welcome to Downstream, the show about politics, culture, political culture and

books which I've been sent for free and think are really good.

What don't we talk about when we talk about sex?

One study identified no fewer than 237 distinct reasons why people have sex ranging from because

it feels good because I was scared not to.

And in the wake of the Me Too movement, a genre of infographics and educational social

media posts emerged comparing sex to sandwiches and cups of tea or to illustrate the importance

of not forcing anyone to have it.

But what about the different kinds of consent, enthusiastic, informed, anxious, strategic

or conditional?

And what are the limitations of positioning consent as the only thing which differentiates

good sex and bad sex?

So to discuss just this, I am really pleased to welcome Rachel Thompson, journalist and

author of the new book Rough, how violence found its way into the bedroom and what we can

do about it.

Rachel, thank you so much for joining us.

Oh my God, thank you for having me.

This is an honor.

I mean, I've got to say my experience of reading this book was to read it, identify loads

with it and then just sort of march around going, I have loads of thoughts about sex now.

I want to talk about it.

That makes me so happy.

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