I have absolutely no idea why someone would think this is OK to do. Generally I can try to piece together how someone might rationalize their behavior but the best I can come up with on this one is: alcohol.
Apparently penis in popcorn is a thing and it's from a movie.
https://www.google.com/search?ei=wZs-WoqmLIKOjwO435PoCQ&q=pe...
[1] http://www.cracked.com/blog/how-men-are-trained-to-think-sex...
Without context, these stories are useless.
That isn't meant as an excuse for such creepy, if not straight up criminal, behavior. But as somebody with some social issues of his own, I can relate quite a bit with not being able to properly interpret social and body cues.
To me, the vast majority of people are walking blackboxes where I have no clue how they would react to most actions of my own. Which boils down to me acting rather passively in most social situations out of fear I might break some unspoken rule, misinterpret the current mood in the room/between people.
The last time I had "body contact" with a woman she literally had to rip my clothes off and throw me on her bed, even tho I wasn't comfortable with that situation at all and stated as much to her, that I'd rather not have intercourse on the first "date".
She didn't care and I was overwhelmed by that situation, only way out there would have been to handle her roughly. But she assumed I was at her place exactly for that, while I was at her place for exactly the reason we talked about: Seeing how much stuff she had because I wanted her to help with moving out. Sorry for not sticking with the old stereotype of "if a woman invited you over it's to have sex".
That wasn't pleasant at all, she supposedly didn't remember much of it due to being too drunk. I probably could push charges, if anybody would actually believe me, but to what end?
I'm only writing this to put context to my previous statement: People are complicated, social is complicated, for some among us even more so than for others. In that regard, I find it really sad that we readily apply Hanlon's Razor to all kinds of problems but rarely, if ever, to social interactions.
That sounds so undefined, I wonder where the cut-off point is? Considering that co-workers can also be friends in private, so private social gatherings following up on company events are not really that rare of a thing.
If you've already done this on several occasions in the past, sure, use your discretion and interpret body language or subtle signs. Otherwise, ask. Period. No exceptions.
That's why you can end up repeating mistakes over and over again and annoy/intimidating people you don't even realize you are annoying/intimidating, even tho that wasn't your intention at all.
> use your discretion and interpret body language or subtle signs
Making it sound so simple disregards the fact that this isn't natural to everybody and it's not really an easy skill to learn when it's not natural to you, especially not on your own.
Sure you can ask about all the things that everybody else considers "normal", but do you really want to stick out even more as the "oddball" than you already feel for being insecure about such seemingly "normal" things?
I can only imagine the amount of outrage if someone wrote this.
It doesn’t matter who it is. If someone wants to be intimate they will clearly signal it.
In the context of the story about the man forcibly putting the woman’s hand on his crotch, there didn’t seem to be any precedent (from the story that was published) that would have indicated that she would want to touch him like that. If there was some conversation that happened where mutual interest was expressed and the conversation turned sexual, then if she wanted to touch him she would.
Grabbing another person and forcing their hand to your genitals is not okay. I don’t understand how that is ambiguous.