There's another angle to this - when I was a young man (a very long time ago) women would answer, reflexively, 'no' because to do otherwise was to risk being branded as promiscuous.
So it would be interesting to look at respondent age in those survey results.
Brilliant breakdown of how cultural context shapes consent percpetions. The correlation between Gender Equality Index scores and response patterns shows something deeper than just policy influence, it basically reveals how embedded societal norms around autonomy trickle down to individual beliefs. I remember working with international teams where communication misunderstandings werent just language but entirely different implicit social frameworks. The real question becomes whether these gaps narrow over time or jsut create parallel belief systems that never fully converge.
It's an interesting study that could have been more interesting if they had changed the wording of the question. They ask “Faced with a sexual proposal, if a woman says ‘no’, she often means ‘yes’ but she is playing ‘hard to get’.
A better question would be to change the word "often" to "sometimes". “Faced with a sexual proposal, if a woman says ‘no’, she sometimes means ‘yes’ but she is playing ‘hard to get’.
I believe that using the word "often" overstates the prevalence of the practice. But many men have encountered a "sometimes" girl, and the results of such a study would have been much more interesting
I would add that it can also mean "not yet" or, in some cases, "I want more foreplay, first." In most cases, before the question even comes up, it's apparent that there's a definite sexual interest and possibly even what we used to call 'making out'.
Thanks for this. This data could be interpreted to 'prove' several things.
The feminist version would be that this graph shows that men are still lagging behind women when understanding consent.
The reality is probably that the version of themselves that women have when answering surveys is not the version that men experience on a night together. Women could think of themselves as more pure and in control than they really are.
There's another angle to this - when I was a young man (a very long time ago) women would answer, reflexively, 'no' because to do otherwise was to risk being branded as promiscuous.
So it would be interesting to look at respondent age in those survey results.
Great stuff as always, James. The pedant inside me wants to let you know that by "Australia" you really meant "Austria", right? 😊
Thanks for reporting the error. I have just corrected it.
Brilliant breakdown of how cultural context shapes consent percpetions. The correlation between Gender Equality Index scores and response patterns shows something deeper than just policy influence, it basically reveals how embedded societal norms around autonomy trickle down to individual beliefs. I remember working with international teams where communication misunderstandings werent just language but entirely different implicit social frameworks. The real question becomes whether these gaps narrow over time or jsut create parallel belief systems that never fully converge.
It's an interesting study that could have been more interesting if they had changed the wording of the question. They ask “Faced with a sexual proposal, if a woman says ‘no’, she often means ‘yes’ but she is playing ‘hard to get’.
A better question would be to change the word "often" to "sometimes". “Faced with a sexual proposal, if a woman says ‘no’, she sometimes means ‘yes’ but she is playing ‘hard to get’.
I believe that using the word "often" overstates the prevalence of the practice. But many men have encountered a "sometimes" girl, and the results of such a study would have been much more interesting
I would also be interested to see those results with the wording changed.
I would add that it can also mean "not yet" or, in some cases, "I want more foreplay, first." In most cases, before the question even comes up, it's apparent that there's a definite sexual interest and possibly even what we used to call 'making out'.
The video is no longer up, BTW.
Can you still see the video within my Substack post? i.e., does the video still play within my Substack post?
I could see the video, James. Good job with this post.
Thanks for this. This data could be interpreted to 'prove' several things.
The feminist version would be that this graph shows that men are still lagging behind women when understanding consent.
The reality is probably that the version of themselves that women have when answering surveys is not the version that men experience on a night together. Women could think of themselves as more pure and in control than they really are.
Interesting (though not really unsurprising to me)
I wonder if one would do the same question but with often replaced to sometimes.
I'm pretty sure percentages would rise dramatically showing even more the delusion behind the "no means no" propagandists.
“Faced with a sexual proposal, if a woman says ‘no’, she sometimes means ‘yes’ but she is playing ‘hard to get’.