I think Perry’s book was strongest on the the stuff around hook-up culture not being a good equilibrium for women because women are on average lower in sociosexuality than men, and would prefer a committed relationship to casual sex. I thought the rest of the book was considerably weaker and I don’t think it offers any good explanations for the prevalence of sexual harassment or assault in different contexts. As other commenters have noted, sexual harassment is probably (not sure though) generally higher in less liberal places, so it doesn’t seem like what is driving culture in the Bay.
I think a better book on this is David Buss’ Bad Men, which takes an evolutionary perspective on sexual conflict in general, seeking to explain sexual harassment, rape, sexual deception, etc. I think the book shows that men and women were not in a happy sexual equilibrium prior to metoo and are also not post-metoo: significant active efforts need to be taken to prevent abuse, and require norms that are much more strict that those extant in society. I found some of the data in the book extremely eye-opening.
“How many men actually force women to have sex without their consent and against their will? One source of evidence comes from studies that explicitly avoid using the word “rape” but instead ask men: “Have you ever had sexual intercourse with an adult when they didn’t want to because you used or threatened to use physical force?”A study of 1,882 American men found that 120, or 6.4 percent, admitted that they had.79 Of these, about two-thirds were repeat rapists, averaging 5.8 admitted rapes. This sample consisted not of convicted rapists but of college students attending a midsize urban commuter university. Other studies have found that between 6 and 15 percent of college males admit to rape or attempted rape as long as the word “rape” is not included in the description.80
A large cross-cultural study used a similar method, asking 10,178 men from six different countries these two key questions: have you “forced a woman who was not your wife or girlfriend at the time to have sex” or “had sex with a woman who was too drunk or drugged to indicate whether she wanted it”?81 The percentage of men who admitted having raped a non-partner was 4.3 percent in Bangladesh, 6.2 percent in Sri Lanka, 8.1 percent in China, 8.3 percent in Cambodia, and 12.8 percent in Indonesia. The most extreme country in the study was Papua New Guinea, which logged an astonishing 40.7 percent of men admitting to the act of rape when that specific word was not used. Most men are not rapists when evaluated by the criterion of actual behavior, but a subset of men clearly are rapists.”
Buss, David M. . Bad Men: The Hidden Roots of Sexual Deception, Harassment and Assault (p. 198). Little, Brown Book Group. Kindle Edition.
I think Perry’s book was strongest on the the stuff around hook-up culture not being a good equilibrium for women because women are on average lower in sociosexuality than men, and would prefer a committed relationship to casual sex. I thought the rest of the book was considerably weaker and I don’t think it offers any good explanations for the prevalence of sexual harassment or assault in different contexts. As other commenters have noted, sexual harassment is probably (not sure though) generally higher in less liberal places, so it doesn’t seem like what is driving culture in the Bay.
I think a better book on this is David Buss’ Bad Men, which takes an evolutionary perspective on sexual conflict in general, seeking to explain sexual harassment, rape, sexual deception, etc. I think the book shows that men and women were not in a happy sexual equilibrium prior to metoo and are also not post-metoo: significant active efforts need to be taken to prevent abuse, and require norms that are much more strict that those extant in society. I found some of the data in the book extremely eye-opening.
Buss, David M. . Bad Men: The Hidden Roots of Sexual Deception, Harassment and Assault (p. 198). Little, Brown Book Group. Kindle Edition.