This paper considers the sexual assault decision of the Supreme Court of Canada, R. v J.A., to assess whether it continues to reflect the same commitment to understanding sexual assault as a practice of sex inequality. This paper argues that two forces threaten to undermine this understanding: first, the elision of women’s equality with individual autonomy and the concomitant impoverishment of the concept of autonomy into “choice” and, second, the disappearance of gendered violence through its normalization.

This paper was presented at the Constitutional Law Symposium in September 2012.