I actually think the Ansari story is one of the more interesting and relevant conversations to come out of the #metoo movement.
Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey and friends are very black and white.
They're horrible bastards and hollywood is very far behind modern standards of whats ok (I'd like to think that shit wouldn't ever fly in a million years in a standard office setting, maybe I'm wrong?)
This one has a lot more grey areas really, most people can probably relate a vaguely similar story on some level. A lot can probably relate with both the people in the story.
There are valuable lessons in there though - she went quite far despite being utterly uncomfortable with it.
How intimidation works with men and women is drastically different imo. I think most guys are largely ... immune to it? I just don't think we're really built to feel it.
Were just more wired to being overconfident and maybe overaggressive to compensate I think.
Women really dont seem to be wired in the same manner and a pretty consistent physical mismatch would change the perspective quite a bit i imagine.
I dont think thats obvious or even occurs to most guys and is probably worth pointing out.
From Ansari's perspective ...
I can totally see how i could have acted in more or less the same way. I think i'll use the old 'men have needs and desires' chestnut here.
Its sometimes used to excuse pretty horrific stuff but ... I dont think anyone is really excusing him or that its that horrific.
Men do have a lot of drives and instincts that are utterly inappropriate to the modern world, we ignore them, we dismiss them, we think for half a second and realise what a fecking stupid idea that would be. But they're still there.
In Ansari's position my dick would be a part of the decision making process and its views on what i should do ... would be fairly consistent.
Women need to use their own initiative and be firm despite feeling intimidated imo. I'm bad at reading non verbal queues of people i know, I'm just not going to pick them up from someone i dont. Thats not particularly uncommon with guys in general I dont think. A lot of us are slightly autistic, for lack of a better description.
I just think you need to give the guy an opportunity to not be a dickhead, be clear and give him the opportunity to do the right thing and call you a taxi.
Ideally before it goes past a point your not willing to go, guys will always been inclined to push it to the absolute limit of where your willing to go.
I think most will back off and ring the taxi. I think the vast majority will. At worst they might be a bit huffy (to hell with the guys who are tbh).
For guys i think 'do you want me to ring you a taxi?' is a good phrase and worth throwing out if in doubt.
Having sex with someone when your just horny and not that committed to ever seeing them again is shallow and unsatisfying on a good day.
Doing it with someone who's not really interested is going to be pretty crap and your really should feel like a total shitbag for pushing them past where they want to go.
All that sounds kind of puritanical to me and kind of rubs me up the wrong way. I'm a hippy - free love! and all that jazz
That idea seems kind of dead today