Can the body give consent?

I’ve been wondering whether consent always has to be verbal - or whether the body can “speak” as well.

In a time of increased sexuality and easy, fast connection, closeness often appears very quickly. Sometimes before everything is fully talked through or clearly defined. We rely on chemistry, bodily reactions, tension - often faster than on words.

On one hand, conversation creates clarity and safety. On the other, the body responds sooner than language and can send very clear signals.

From my experience working with the body, even a prior conversation doesn’t explain everything. Reactions, tension, relaxation - they often communicate more than declarations do.

How do you see it? Should consent always be verbal and explicit, or is there also space for reading bodily cues? Where do you think the line is between attentiveness and the risk of misunderstanding?

 

No. A body cannot consent. Only a person can.

Longer, more precise answer:

• Reflexes, instincts, arousal, withdrawal, compliance, or lack of resistance are NOT consent
  
  
• Automatic physiological responses (heart rate, muscle tension, lubrication, pupil dilation, etc.) are biological reactions, not decisions
  
  
• Consent requires agency, which requires conscious cognition (or a previously expressed directive)
  
  A useful way to frame it: Consent is an act of the mind, not a behavior of the body.

 

Personally, I feel that the truth lies somewhere in between. Of course, whenever verbal consent is possible, it’s worth striving for - conversation brings clarity and a sense of safety. But I also don’t think that this closes off every other form of understanding.

Language hasn’t always been - and still isn’t - the only way we communicate. We can look, for example, at dance, such as tango, which has long been an expression of desire and physicality. A glance or a minimal gesture of the head could serve as a question and an answer - a form of consent without words.

I have a sense that the body has always been a carrier of signals - emotions, desire, readiness. History, dance, and literature are full of such moments.

At the same time, we live in a world where contexts overlap, the pace of connection is fast, and boundaries are often less clear. Because of that, what may once have been “readable through the body” can now become risky without words.

For me, consent is therefore neither purely verbal nor purely bodily - it requires attentiveness to both languages at once.

Sometimes words will say it all, sometimes the body will communicate everything without using words

 

The law allows non-verbal consent, but only if it’s intentional, informed, and voluntary. The line is drawn at conscious choice. A body reacting automatically or unconsciously cannot give consent.