01534nam a22001217a 4500008004100000100001900041245011100060260003100171300003200202520104700234650010001281773003101381251202b           ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d  aGavey, Nicola   aDeconstructing ‘rough sex’ in a new Zealand murder trial: Beyond the modern mythology of everyday kink  aSocial and Legal Studies    a34(6), Dec, 2025: p.896-917  aI analyse the way ‘rough sex’, including ‘choking’, was normalised during the 2019 trial of Jesse Kempson for the murder of Grace Millane – and portrayed as a modern form of mutual and egalitarian sexual exploration, particularly for young people. While the so-called ‘rough sex defence’ has been widely critiqued for the way it operates in the criminal justice system to minimise violence against women and blame victims for their own murder or assault, I focus here on the wider social implications of such legal arguments. I identify how the trial was infused with a ‘modern mythology of everyday kink’ discourse, which I critically deconstruct through the lens of three women's stories about unwanted or unenjoyed ‘rough sex’. I show that this discourse obscures and enables concerning new patterns of hurtful, exploitative and violent acts against women and girls that are becoming normalised and legitimated in the name of (rough) sex.- Reproduced 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09646639241292689
  aViolence against women, Expert evidence, Sex positivity, Sexual choking, Sexual consent, BDSM.   aSocial and Legal Studies