Huh?
“UNWANTED SEXUAL CONTACT” AT COLLEGE: “It’s part of the normal scene.” And men report it at a frequency not much less than women: “About 7 percent of women and 4 percent of men report unwanted intercourse.”
Oh please, Glenn!
First of all, it’s true in one (very silly) sense that a difference between two percentages is “not much” if it’s only three percent… UNLESS ONE OF THEM IS FOUR PERCENT AND THE OTHER IS SEVEN PERCENT! Then it’s almost DOUBLE the frequency! Besides, that’s just “intercourse” — the article actually says, “Overall, 28 percent of New Hampshire women report at least one incident of unwanted contact, as do 11 percent of men.” So as to unwanted sexual contact (Glenn’s choice of phrase!), the frequency for women is nearly triple that of men!
But this is a quibble.
The real point is… unwanted INTERCOURSE reported by MEN?
Help me out here, Glenn Sacks! I am sorry, but — really. Tell me how that goes. In college. Explain me how that happens.
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8 comments
I’ll buy the unwanted sexual contact–that’s happened to me more than once, especially in my younger more fey days (and yes, I did have them)–but intercourse is trickier. It can and indeed does happen, but it’s difficult, so hard to arrange. Still, erections are not entirely voluntary, especially in young men, and it’s also possible to force one through prostate stimulation.
However, "unwanted intercourse" does not sound like what we think of as rape, unless we dilute the word “rape” down to equating any unwanted sexual advance with what the Duke Lacrosse players were accused of. Having sex with someone who basically won’t stop pestering you and pushing themselves on you sounds more like what’s being described here, and in that instance, yeah I can see it. The response is what the college crowd used to call the "mercy fuck" back in the 1990s–basically, "she kept whining until I gave in even though I can’t stand her." I saw that happen in bars even.
To me "unwanted" means coerced.
Not "coyote ugly."
Ron Coleman’s last blog post..West view
Damn! Where the hell was all this sexual contact when I was in college, huh? I feel cheated!
Jan
JLBussey’s last blog post..Gold Crowned Sparrow
If we follow the link trail, the report itself defines "unwanted sexual experiences" thusly:
It also occurs to me that unwanted sexual contact with a gay man might also happen, which is yet another way in which a man might experience such a thing. There’s also a certain cultural mindset found in some communities that if a man sodomizes another man in an aggressive, domineering fashion, that’s not “gay” it’s just funny.
I was wondering about that part of it, Dean, yeah. We’ve seen how "funny" people around here think homosexual rape is here when it happens in prison.
All this really demonstrates is that Glenn didn’t do a very good job of spinning this somewhat more complex story. Hey, no one’s perfect!
Ron Coleman’s last blog post..Farewell, Siam!
Since most ‘unwanted intercourse’ for females is regrets after indulging in too much booze, I don’t see any reason to apply a different definition for this term for men.
Dave Justus’s last blog post..Kindle
I was going to ask, "Who said it’s men reporting unwanted sex with the opposite gender?" but Dean beat me to it.
I can see a lot of situations involving men and unwanted intercourse:
* A man who is involved with a woman, but who is coerced into sex with a second woman while he is inebriated.
* A man who was raised in a traditional household and does not believe in premarital intercourse has (at best) semi-consensual sex or sexual contact … especially if he’s unsure about the way his body is reacting to the situation.
* A man who is unsure of his sexual identity and is pressured to indulge with a partner of one gender or another.
* A gay man who is more or less coerced into sex with a woman.
And so on …
–|PW|–
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