Scary statistics: When Is Rape Okay?

I think she's misinterpreting Game of Thrones by describing it as an attractive, escapist fantasy world. I think that Martin's point is that we should feel ambivalent about this world because it is, in many ways, a brutal, horrible place. Martin is pretty clear that, in this system, the people who actually take the principles of honor and chivalry seriously are exploited by people who view those principles cynically. One way to look at the explicit sex (particularly with prostitutes) in Game of Thrones is that it shows that our conception about the men in this setting as chivalrous and protective of women is just a self-serving lie. What they say in their codes of honor is counterbalanced by what they do in Peter Baelish's brothels. This isn't just a society that sees women as "there for the taking", it's a society where everyone can be exploited and the honorability of your actions has very little connection to your fate. The fact that, in this environment, there are so many women who are powerful is an important statement and not one that we find in, say, Tolkien.

Regarding the last statistic mentioned I found myself in a bit of a pickle myself. Maybe the question "Would you keep trying to have sex if your date says no?" is a rather complicated one.

It seems to me that the default answer is no. So if you ask someone you haven't gone that far yet after just a bit of kissing you would most likely get a no (which probably highly depends on the women and how she feels judged if she openly admits to her desires), but minutes later you might get a yes. A tug of war, a game. There is certainly a difference between a women laughingly saying "no", then taking her bra off anyway, and a women pushing herself in the corner screaming "no!", but what comes to mind if these men are asked? Really the latter?

I've had the former happen rather often, although my experience is limited to younger women. I would probably answer yes without hesitation, adding myself to the group of people this articles writer is dumbfounded by.

Reflecting on that I'm rather confused.

Wow, that's both scary (more than _50%_ of guys reported that rape was okay in some cases), and depressing (double digit % of women have been conditioned into thinking it's acceptable).

Seriously wtf is wrong with people :-/