“Do You Read Me?”

Abstract

Inaccurate interpretation of negotiated nonverbal communication during an intimate encounter has serious moral and legal repercussions. Reciprocity between bodies allows one to assess the intention of the other. However, when the intended message is miscommunicated through the sender’s embodied action or misperceived by the receiver, a sexual assault can ensue. Understanding, conveying, and responding to behavioral gestures indicative of agreement or refusal to consent, is an emotional quagmire that has received global attention through sociopolitical movements such as #MeToo. Despite the desired cogitation of a pre-reflexive intentioned message, reciprocal navigation of a shared intimate space shifts within the corporeal/intercorporeal relationship, such that a habituated behavioral response, autonomic bodily responding, and socialized dating norms all have the potential to sabotage the essence of the original message. Seeking legal retribution is compromised in its application of objectified parameters to an ambiguous, subjective human interaction. While programs promoting slogans such as “Just Say No” are well intentioned, the complexity of human behavior, unconscious processes, and subjective perception, all suggest that communicating a refusal to consent extends far beyond the verbal utterance of saying “No.”