Gender Differences In Inferring Sexual Interest

In the article “Toward an Understanding of Gender Differences in Inferring Sexual Interest,” authors Maurice J. Levesque, Christopher S. Nave, and Charles A. Lowe discuss a very important issue with regards to gender interactions. The article depicts that research denotes that when there is a brief interaction between the opposite genders, the men tend to perceive the women more sexually compared to how women perceive the men. The article talks about how this was something that was largely anecdotal until 1982 when Abbey et al. conducted a research where she was able to find that men tended to rate women more sexually than women did men. The article describes several other stories that have confirmed the same. According to the authors, such …show more content…
The thing to note is that the interaction between men and women in our society is something that can create many problems. Even though for the most part it can be said to be quite to be quite innocuous and that it leads to people meeting and being friends, it has to be noted that because of the sexualization effect, it can cause many problems, such as sexual assault. As the authors note, “For example, men who find a conversation enjoyable may begin to pay particular attention to their female partner’s behavior and interpret such behavior as indicating sexual interest, or women who are highly agreeable or extroverted may provide more cues that may be misread by men as indicating sexual interest” (Levesque et al., 2006). This is something that can be problematic. The reason for this is that the men might think of their interaction as the women inviting sexual relationships when the women might not be doing so. This is something that can lead to not only confusion, embarrassment, and resentment, but in many cases, it can lead to sexual assault and violence as …show more content…
For instance, consider an environment where men and women have to interact with each other on a regular basis. This is something that can include schools, colleges, and workplaces. When men and women work together on the same project and they spend a lot of time together, they start to form a bond, just like people from any gender would when working closely together. However, as noted correctly in the research, men tend to take cues from the women and they start to believe that the women are interested in them in the same sexual manner as the men are when this is something that might not be the case. This can result in unwanted sexual advancements from the men’s side towards the women. This is something that can result in many problems for both the men and the women, affecting their friendships. Furthermore, if the men are offended quite a lot, they can even indulge in sexual assault and this is something that can lead to criminal charges as well as injuries to the women (Connell,