A team of researchers, including Binghamton psychology professor Richard Mattson and graduate student Michael Shaw asked men between the ages of 18–25 to respond to hypothetical sexual hookup situations in which a woman responds passively to a sexual advance, meaning the woman does not express any overt verbal or behavioral response to indicate consent to increase the level of physical intimacy. The team then surveyed how consensual each man perceived the situation to be, as well as how he would likely behave.

The work is published in the journal Sex Roles.

“A passive response to a sexual advance is a normative indicator of consent, but also might reflect distress or fear, and whether men are able to differentiate between the two during a hookup was important to explore,” said Mattson.

The team found that men varied in their perception of passive responses in terms of consent and that the level of perceived consent was strongly linked to an increased likelihood of continuing or advancing sexual behavior.

“The biggest takeaway is that men differed in how they interpreted an ambiguous female response to their sexual advances with respect to their perception of consent, which in turn influenced their sexual decisions,” said Mattson.

“But certain types of men (e.g., those high in toxic masculine traits) tended to view situations as more consensual and reported that they would escalate the level of sexual intimacy regardless of whether or not they thought it was consensual.”

  • weaponG@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    If we are going to broadly add buzzword adjectives to one gender, we should add them to all genders, equally: toxic femininity.

    • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      toxic femininity

      Yes, that is a thing. So is performative masculinity/femininity and so on.

      The problem is that one is disparately expressed more than the other so you hear about that often. Like, toxicity over underperforming masculinity can get you harassed, bullied, and even killed. Toxic masculinity can also lead to rape if a woman isn’t feminine enough.

    • slacktoid@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      Maybe elaborate? I know what toxic masculinity means, what do you mean by that, and toxic femininity? (everyones a shithead but bring receipts if you wanna be taken seriously)

    • masquenox@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Feel free to explain how this “toxic feminity” poses a threat to all and sundry on a daily basis.

      • weaponG@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Feel free to explain the opposite. It’s a poor premise of masculinity, if that is what you think of it.

        • masquenox@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          It’s a poor premise of masculinity

          Perhaps because masculinity itself is such a piss-poor premise.