Victim Blaming, Or, Useful Information In Preventing Rape And Sexual Exploitation.
Christopher Philip
Sexual cues can be a double-edged sword because they can be read as available and simultaneously read as cues indicating sexual exploitability.
The aim of my articles is to help people reach their goals. I write a lot to help men attract women so that they can gain female affection. It’s no secret that men are driven to be with women and when women are absent in their lives, they long for them.
Women, on the other hand, have different goals. Yes, I do have women inquiring about how to attract men, but by-in-large, women have it easy, sometimes too easy. They can simply put out specific sexual signals and have men pursue. Some issues arise when women have the wiring crossed such as when they don’t understand the extreme power they wield with nonverbal communication, but once made aware, implementation is quite successful.
However, a whole new set of issues arise. Sexual cues can be tricky in that they are not always directional. We call these “broadcast signals.” At times, women simply don’t understand the messages they are sending and how men are interpreting them. Some of this is tied to a woman’s particular personality. Other times it is tied to a woman’s fertility cycle. Women during peak fertility, occurring around mid-menstrual-cycle (in normal cycling women i.e. those not on hormonal contraceptives), send out cues to receptivity. They dress more overtly by wearing tight, sheer or skin-revealing clothing, they walk with exaggerated hip-sway, and tend to flirt more. However, the risk in this case, is in attracting men they would rather repel.
I always remind women to keep their objectives in mind. As a rule of thumb, women should send cues out to specific men of interest by anchoring cues with eye contact. When women dress provocatively, they are sending signals to the entire room, but when they make eye contact, smile, then lower their head, they are tying the cue to a man of interest. Eye contact is very powerful and the most universal of all attraction signals -also the most likely to create positive results.
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A study by Cari Goetz and her colleagues out of the University of Texas, Austin wished to assess the observable cues that men used to determine which women they found most sexually exploitable.
However (and most interestingly), the research found that most cues, 19 of 22, were correlated not only with sexual attractiveness, but also sexual exploitability. These included the descriptors, Easy, Immature, Intoxicated, Reckless, Promiscuous, Partying, Flirty, Promiscuous friends, Attention seeking, Young, Sleepy, Come hither look, Revealing clothing, Touching breast, Open posture, Alone, Tight clothing.
Some of the cues that did not correlate with sexual exploitability include: Intelligent, Shy, Age, Old, Passed out, Flushed face, Anxious, Sucking on a straw, Being touched, Standing near men, Sad, Prostitute, Piercings, Skinny, Tall, Canted neck, Flushed neck, Dancing, Touching others, Distressed, Open legs, Crying, Raised arms, Mostly with men.
As it turns out psychological traits and cues to incapacitation, were strongly correlated with sexual exploitability. Psychological traits indicative of ease of mental or emotional manipulation (intelligence, immaturity), flirtatiousness and promiscuity (promiscuous, flirty, having promiscuous friends, wearing revealing clothing), and recklessness (reckless, partying) were significantly linked with perceptions of exploitability. So too were cues to being incapacitated, such as sleepy and intoxicated.
“These findings suggest that men are sensitive to cues in a variety of domains when assessing the sexual exploitability of women,” say the researchers. They continue, “This research expands our knowledge of victim-related cues that may activate mechanisms for exploitation.”
The results highlight the importance of examining cues put out by women from a man’s perspective. It suggests that men are not acting at random, but rather, are seeking specific opportunities in mates.
Interestingly, cues indicating physical weakness did not significantly correlate with measures of exploitability. According to the authors, “It is possible that the strength difference between men and women is so large that size and strength differences among women are irrelevant when assessing their exploitability.” This suggests, perhaps counter-intuitively that men do not take advantage of women purely based on their relative sizes, just because they can in other words, but are rather, driven by other forces.
It is possible, according to the authors that men are motivated via sexual attraction to pursue women for exploitative, short-term mating opportunities based on cues suggesting that exploitative strategies are likely to be effective. In other words, men take advantage of women who give off sexual signals because they believe they will be more likely to succeed.
Thus, sexual cues, are a double-edged-sword. While big gains can be made by broadcasting cues in eliciting attention from men of interest, the women who provide them excessively will always be at risk for attracting the wrong audience. While sexual cues work well to solicit male attention, they can always be read by the wrong crowd.
While it is unfortunate that we should live in a world where we must worry about unjust circumstances, there is comfort in knowing that we can reduce our chances of being on the receiving end of something horrible. While I would never wish to take part in “victim blaming,” I am prepared to instruct the female readers to take heed of the information collected from this study.
The research does provide useful information to women, should they be willing to entertain it.
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Resources
Cari D. Goetz; Judith A. Easton; David M.G. Lewis; David M. Buss. Sexual Exploitability: Observable Cues And Their Link To Sexual Attraction. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2019; 33: 417-426.
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