Do Men and Women Differ in their Perceptions of Women’s and Men’s Saying “No” When They Mean “Yes” to Sex?: An Examination Between and Within Gender

Abstract

The current study examines men’s and women’s perceptions of both men’s and women’s use of token resistance in heterosexual relationships. Three hundred and forty (n = 340) individuals (148 men and 191 women) with an average age of 21.31 years (SD = 4.11) served as participants in an online study at a large, southwestern university. Results indicate that men perceive both men and women as using token resistance more than women do. Specifically, when examining a traditional sexual script in which the man is the sexually proactive partner and the woman is perceived as exercising token resistance, men believe that women engage in token resistance more than women do. In the scenario in which the woman is the sexually proactive partner and the man is the token resistant party, men perceive men using token resistance more than women do. Within gender, men perceive men using token resistance more than women do. Findings are discussed within the context of sexual script theory and the traditional sexual script.