| dc.description.abstract | There is a common myth that many women follow a traditional sexual script in which they say no to sex even when they mean yes. According to this myth, women offer token resistance to sex in order not to appear promiscuous. The more men believe this myth, the more justifiable they rate a man's forcing a woman to have sex after she says no, and the more likely they say they would be to engage in such aggressive behavior. If they do not believe her no, they do not regard forced sex as rape.
In the present study, a questionnaire was developed to assess the incidence of token resistance to sex among female undergraduates. About one third of the 610 women surveyed reported having said no to sex when they meant yes. Three main clusters of reasons were identified: (a) reasons related to feelings of inhibition, which correlated positively with erotophiobia; (b) reasons related to manipulative concerns, which correlated positively with erotophilia and the belief that women find it sexually arousing to be physically dominated; and (c) reasons related to practical, rational concerns. All three groups of reasons correlated positively with the belief that other women tend to say no to sex when they mean yes. | en |
