While several psychological theories of rape have been developed, Tannen's
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implicit understanding of the normative interactional structure of refusal, and it
is this that explains their difficulty in ‘just saying no’ to
unwanted sex. However, Kitzinger and Frith's study could not demonstrate,
but only argue, that young men share this sophisticated understanding, such that
women saying ‘no’ should not be necessary to refuse sexual
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data from two focus groups held with young men. We demonstrate that, as Kitzinger
and Frith suggested, men not only do have a refined ability to hear verbal refusals
that do not contain the word ‘no’, but also – and
importantly – an equally refined ability to ‘hear’ the
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