Source for the questions: Begins on page 106. In this post, I'll just go through each one and offer my own thoughts on it.


How many people have ever exposed their sexual body parts to you, flashed you, or masturbated in front of you?

Obviously this kind of behavior is not okay. It's morally despicable. However, it is NOT nonconsensual sex. In fact, it isn't sex at all for that matter. A flasher is not a rapist, though I don't have a whole lot of respect for them.

How many people have ever made you show your sexual body parts to them? Remember, we are only asking about things that you didn’t want to happen.

This is a very unclear wording. What does it mean to make someone show your sexual body parts to them? Does it mean to stick a gun in their face and make a demand? Does it mean to be very persuasive? Does it mean to put them in an environment where there is intense social pressure and you will be largely ostracized or rejected if you don't do as they want? Without knowing more about how they asked the question, it's hard to tell what they mean and it's hard to know how many people asked for clarification. If we assume nothing other than this wording though, I could imagine a lot of false positives even from completely honest respondents.

How many people have ever made you look at or participate in sexual photos or movies?

Firstly I want to ask again, what does it mean to make someone do things? If I'm at a social gathering and one person wants to be edgy by turning on a pornographic film and everyone just watches, and I'll look like a prude if I don't watch, are they making me watch? The wording is ambiguous here just like in the last one. What if I take a college course where it is relevant to see sexual material? Is the professor guilty of anything?

Secondly, there are a number of ways in which making someone see a sexual photo is not rape. Dick picks are disrespectful, obnoxious, immoral, and should not be sent without the other person expressing that they would like to see them. I absolutely lose respect for people who fail to recognize this. However, it's not nonconsensual sex or any sex for that matter.

Thirdly, why are they lumping "making" someone look at a sexual photo with making someone participate in a sex tape? The two are not similar in extremity. Making someone participate in a sex tape might not always be rape as "make" is ambiguous but it is probably rape a very high percentage of the time and is probably never equal with merely showing someone a photo. If making someone appear in a video is not rape, it's still something that I would absolutely advocate sending someone to prison for.

How many people have ever harassed you while you were in a public place in a way that made you feel unsafe?

Firstly, what does "harass" mean? Is it the legal definition where one person is repeatedly going out of their way to harass you or does this include things like the street harassment which negatively affects many women? If it is the legal definition, it's still not rape but I might not resist including it in the statistics if more information was gathered and if the statistics openly measured misconduct rather than promoting an image of tracking rape. If it's street harassment, then it's bullshit. Street harassment is one again, morally repugnant behavior that nobody should ever take part in but it isn't a crime to be rude and disrespectful. Frequently running into rude people is not worth including and if it was intended to be interpreted in that way, then it was probably just there to boost the numbers.

Secondly, what does "feel unsafe" mean? Does it mean that the aggressor goes out of their way to make the person feel unsafe or just that for one reason or another, the "victim" feels unsafe? Would something like this be counted in the statistics?

This question seems rather vague and once again, likely to get a lot of false positives even if the respondents are being completely honest. I would have preferred to read, "Has anyone done XYZ specific action to you in a public place?"

How many people have ever kissed you in a sexual way? Remember, we are only asking about things that you didn’t want to happen.

What's "in a sexual way" ? Is it a small kiss to see if the other person wants to go further or is it jamming your tongue down their throat? If it's the former then I don't think there's a society-wide consensus that this is sexual misconduct and I think most people who engage this way see it as a non-verbal way of asking for consent. That being said, I don't think people should do it. Verbal consent should precede any action. Still, it's not nonconsensual sex.

However, if it is tongue penetration then just to not discount any rapes and not to make it legally or socially safe to only force yourself on someone provided that it's all kissing, then I would count it as rape. I could certainly see any permissive attitude towards jamming your throat nonconsensually down someone's thought as being permissive of rape. So, this one might not be completely off. It is probably the best question asked so far.

How many people have ever fondled or grabbed your sexual body parts?

This is clearly molestation. I won't split hairs over whether molestation is rape or not. This is clearly a good question. I would like to see this question on a survey that didn't include the others.

When you were drunk, high, drugged, or passed out and unable to consent, how many people ever had vaginal sex with you? By vaginal sex, we mean that {if female: a man or boy put his penis in your vagina} {if male: a woman or girl made you put your penis in her vagina}?

The way that this question is asked, someone can be able to consent and still have the sex be counted in the survey. Drunken sex is not automatically rape. High sex is not automatically rape. There are probably a lot of false positives here from honest respondents.

Interesting wording regarding the {if male} bit. For women, it is just how many people had sex with them consensually or otherwise. For men though, they use the word "made". "Made" still has all the ambiguity problems as before but also adds an element or some kind of coercion. The question is subtly different for men and women.

When you were drunk, high, drugged, or passed out and unable to consent, how many people ever {if male} made you perform anal sex, meaning that they made you put your penis into their anus?

Once again, includes consensual sex. Also, still uses the ambiguous "made".

When you were drunk, high, drugged, or passed out and unable to consent, how many people ever made you receive anal sex, meaning they put their penis into your anus?

As above.

When you were drunk, high, drugged, or passed out and unable to consent, how many people ever made you perform oral sex, meaning that they put their penis in your mouth or made you penetrate their vagina or anus with your mouth?

As above.

When you were drunk, high, drugged, or passed out and unable to consent, how many people ever made you receive oral sex, meaning that they put their mouth on your {if male: penis} {if female: vagina} or anus?

As above.

How many people have ever used physical force or threats to physically harm you to make you have vaginal sex?

Clearly rape.

How many people have ever used physical force or threats to physically harm you to make you {if male} perform anal sex?

Clearly rape.

How many people have ever used physical force or threats to physically harm you to make you receive anal sex?

Clearly rape.

How many people have ever used physical force or threats to physically harm you to make you make you perform oral sex?

Clearly rape.

How many people have ever used physical force or threats to physically harm you to make you make you receive oral sex?

Clearly rape.

How many people have ever used physical force or threats to physically harm you to make you put their fingers or an object in your {if female: vagina or} anus?

Clearly rape.

How many people have ever used physical force or threats of physical harm to {if male} try to make you have vaginal sex with them, but sex did not happen?

If you really want to be firm about rape being strictly nonconsensual sex then I see where you're coming from but this is a meaningful question for a rape survey. If you do not think this counts as rape then I think you should at least consider it to be an equally deplorable act that should be subject to the same stigma and legal penalties as rape.

How many people have ever used physical force or threats of physical harm to try to have {if female: vaginal} oral, or anal sex with you, but sex did not happen?

As above.

How many people have you had vaginal, oral, or anal sex with after they pressured you by doing things like telling you lies, making promises about the future they knew were untrue, threatening to end your relationship, or threatening to spread rumors about you?

  • Lies: Depends what the lie is. "No I don't have AIDS" should probably be a crime subject to prison time. "Yes I love you" should not.

  • making promises about the future they knew were untrue: Straight forwardly not rape. Not a nice thing to do but not rape.

  • threatening to end your relationship: Straight forwardly not rape. In fact, they even give you an option not to have sex with them. I could see this being a problem in cases of marriage though. Say for example that one spouse is an alcoholic so the other knows they will get custody and threatens the alcoholic spouse with never seeing their kids again. That gets into a gray area but this question accounts for a lot more than that. Furthermore, people with dead bedrooms might see this as a threat when it's actually just one person in the relationship voicing their concern.

  • threatening to spread rumors about you: I would count this in the survey. People on /r/mensrights should know as well as anyone what a mere accusation can do to somebody. Reputation is extremely important and can be more coercive than physical harm.

How many people have you had vaginal, oral, or anal sex with after they pressured you by doing things like wearing you down by repeatedly asking for sex, or showing they were unhappy?

Literally nagging. No, this is not rape. Consent is consent.

How many people have you had vaginal, oral, or anal sex with after they pressured you by doing things like using their authority over you, for example, your boss or your teacher?

Rightfully included in the survey.


Concluding thoughts:

The 25% statistic is horrifically diluted. It probably isn't a safe assumption to assume that there was perfect clarification on all items on the list and it probably isn't safe to assume that there was no clarification. What the respondents generally believed that they were asked is difficult for us to ascertain which is probably a meaningful fact. Even if clarification was perfect, the survey is still heavily diluted with questions like the nagging question. I would not write the survey off as bullshit though. It does ask questions which yield meaningful answers, I would only call it bullshit to say that the survey says 25% of women have been raped or sexually assaulted. What the survey measures is that 25% of women have experienced someone doing something that the person ought not to have done, and that the action in question was in some way relating to sex.