“This is My Girl”: How Men’s Desires Obscure Women’s Sexual Aggression Experiences in Public Drinking Settings

Abstract

In this article, we use 198 interviews with young men and women to explore how they define and negotiate boundaries of unwanted sexual contact in public drinking settings. Men and women’s contrasting experiences reveal that in bars and nightclubs, sexual aggression against women is routine and typically involves physical threat. For men, however, consensual and nonaggressive contact can register as problematic when disruptive to men’s control of heterosexual interactions. Men’s aggression toward other men who disrupt their access to women is cause and consequence of women’s sexual aggression experiences being less visible. We contribute to sexual assault literature by illustrating how heterosexual power dynamics—specifically, disproportionate visibility and defense of men’s desires—shape tolerance of barroom sexual aggression, discourage bystander intervention, and set the stage for more serious forms of assault to occur and go unpunished.

Trajectory Guarding: Managing Unwanted, Ambiguously Sexual Interactions at Work

“…Walking away may have risked damaging his relationship with his colleague, but men like Hamza did not report fear that women would escalate their behavior to more explicit sexual harassment. This is consistent with research showing that when men experience sexual aggression from women it is often fleeting, whereas women’s experiences of sexual aggression from men tend to be more prolonged (Becker and Tinkler 2020).…”

Individual Vulnerability and Organizational Context as Risks for Sexual Harassment among Female Graduate Students

“…These results indicate the potential role of male peer culture in women's risk for sexual harassment by their peers. Consistent with some work on sexual assault, women's peers may actively use substance use as a tool to dominate and victimize them (Becker and Tinkler 2021;Ford 2017) and may feel emboldened to harass women in fields with more men (Stockdale et al 2014;Tenbrunsel et al 2019). Moreover, the risks associated with alcohol use may vary across different academic events.…”

“…Ford (2017) documented that men actively use women's alcohol use to sexually victimize them without using force. Alcohol use also tends to occur in high-risk environments, increasing exposure to potential offenders (Becker and Tinkler 2021;Boyle 2015;Sutton et al 2019). Similar target congruence effects may occur in the context of sexual harassment in which women are perceived as more vulnerable and unable to detect risk.…”