Anderson- Sex Under Pressure

Scott Anderson wrote Sex Under Pressure: Jerks, Boorish Behavior, and Hierarchy. This piece was in response to Marcia Baron and her idea of consent under law. Anderson argues that sexual consent is more than just a yes or no answer. It’s about sexual pressure, mental states, and other ethical factors that can be seen as nonconsenting.

Sexual pressure is when A pressures B to agree to sex, even though B is unwilling. In most sexual assault cases A is the man and B is the woman. So what does it mean to pressure a woman into sex? If a man asks a woman “Will you have sex with me?” or something along those lines, and the woman says “no” and the man continues to be persistent as a way to break her down, that’s sexual pressure. In Anderson’s proves sexual pressure is relevant through Gender Hierarchy. “Gender Hierarchy empowers men in their stereotypical role as a seducer and, at the same time, weakens women.” (Anderson’s thesis, responding to Conly).

Gender Hierarchy is present in our society in other ways as well. There is still the apparent standards that the man initiates their sexual attraction to a woman. That means that men are still expected to be the one to ask the woman out, pay for their dates, and overall be the dominant gender in a heterosexual relationship. With these standards still being upheld in our society, men see themselves as the dominant gender, creating the gender hierarchy. When a woman rejects a man the myth is “She’s playing hard to get”. That turns into fake romance displayed in novels and movies of men being persistent towards women until they say yes.

This Gender Hierarchy pressures woman into saying yes to man even when they don’t want to. Because men are seen as the more dominating gender with their choices are more influential than a woman’s. In the case of Amy, which we learned in class today, even after she was raped, his attention seemed attractive and dominant. Even after she said no, his persistence is made it seem like he wasn’t taking no for an answer, influencing her to say yes. Women are stuck in the position of wanting a man’s attention, but having to deal with the consequences that can come along with the answer no. Women become scared and vulnerable to the idea of rejecting a man. Rejecting a man can sometimes seem more dangerous than just saying yes.

Anderson argues that the value of consent can be lessoned in certain situations. If the final answer is yes, but had to come out of pressure after the first answer was no, that is due to Gender Hierarchy. Men have more of an influence on what a woman wants, and they’re negligent to the signs that indicates that a woman doesn’t want to be with them.