A Qualitative Analysis of Sexual Consent among Heavy-drinking College Men

Abstract

The current study sought to examine how heavy-drinking college men describe communication of sexual interest and sexual consent. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 12 heavy-drinking college men identified three themes. Themes included: (a) expectations about parties and sexual activity, (b) observing and communicating sexual interest, and (c) communication of sexual consent. Men reported visiting drinking environments to locate women who they assumed would be open to sexual advances. In these environments, sexual interest was inferred indirectly through shared alcohol use. Anticipating token resistance men reported “trying and trying again” to pursue escalating types of sexual activity. Consent was inferred when participants did not hear “no” from a sexual partner, highlighting the importance of continued education on verbal consent in the context of sexual assault prevention programs.

“Yo sí te Creo”: Alcohol-facilitated sexual violence among young women in the Spanish night-time economy

“…This agrees with comparative qualitative studies that have concluded that alcohol is deliberately used by men as a seduction technique without considering whether or not there is consent (Orchowski et al, 2020). In fact, the phenomenon of men inciting women to drink so as to take sexual advantage of them should be considered as an aggressive rape tactic (Thompson and Cracco, 2008; Warkentin and Gidycz, 2007) and the perpetrator of such behaviour as “predatory” (Graham et al, 2010).…”

“…It is noteworthy, moreover, that one of the young men interviewed should call these behaviours a common "tactic": "Well if I go out for ten nights then maybe there is one who has that tactic, to call it something, and so it's fairly usual…and not one person, but several (…) in that moment they (the girls) react nervously 'well no, no, no', but come on, if maybe he is by himself and she is by herself, then later you can regret it, but it's already done, you've also got to know how to drink (…) I think that as you're under the effect of alcohol, I don't know, I don't know if they consent or don't consent (…) A cousin of mine, fooling, fooling, fooling around, she kept quiet, and later the next morning she called me in tears, yes it's true, but it had already happened, what can you do, 'don't drink, I don't know'." (Lucas,18) This agrees with comparative qualitative studies that have concluded that alcohol is deliberately used by men as a seduction technique without considering whether or not there is consent (Orchowski et al, 2020). In fact, the phenomenon of men inciting women to drink so as to take sexual advantage of them should be considered as an aggressive rape tactic (Thompson and Cracco, 2008;Warkentin and Gidycz, 2007) and the perpetrator of such behaviour as "predatory" (Graham et al, 2010).…”

“…Men, in general, do not consider it a crime or that it might be bad to have sexual relations with a drunk or drugged person (Thompson and Cracco, 2008; Wegner et al, 2015). However, the studies also warn of an aggressor profile that, rather than getting involved in this type of behaviour opportunistically, actively seeks or incites the victim's state of intoxication with the aim of ensuring or forcing sexual relations (Dumbili and Williams, 2017; Gunby et al, 2012; Orchowski et al, 2020; Romero-Sánchez and Megías, 2010).…”

Assessing the Within-Person Variability of Internal and External Sexual Consent

“…That we did not corroborate previous findings regarding between-person sociodemographic variability of sexual consent may have been due to our sample comprising only people who were in committed sexual relationships. 2 Indeed, how people conceptualize sexual consent can vary based on relationship status (Humphreys & Brousseau, 2010;Orchowski et al, 2020;Righi et al, 2019), as can the ways they experience and communicate willingness to engage in sexual activity Marcantonio et al, 2018;Walsh et al, 2019). Because previous studies on the between-person variability of sexual consent collected data from samples that were much more heterogeneous than the present study regarding relational context, comparisons of between-person effects across studies must be done with caution.…”

Sexual Consent in Committed Relationships: A Dyadic Study

“…Research indicates that nonverbal consent cues are used more frequently than verbal cues (Hickman & Muehlenhard, 1999 ; Orchowski et al., 2020 ; Righi et al., 2019 ). Despite the potential subtlety of nonverbal cues, qualitative evidence suggests that people are deft communicators when it comes to sex, effectively discerning their partners’ hints and behaviors as willingness or refusal (Beres, 2014 ; O’Byrne et al., 2008 ).…”