No

[womanformallyknownaswoman]

What is it about a No from a women/women that causes so much reaction? It's just a word that conveys a boundary - No, I don't agree with you/No I don't want you near me/ No I feel uncomfortable with you breaking my boundaries eg opening the closed door of a bathroom whilst I am in it. What gives you the right to softly or aggressively not hear my NO?

I'm curious as to this
Whore/Madonna complex. I don't fall into either category. I'm asexual according to most men, or very rarely seen as a rival. I'm not a sexual being, I'm not a motherly figure, so it does not compute, therefore i must be one of the boys. I am immune to "banter" and give as good as I get so to be honest I fit in fine as one of the boys. Except for when they don't want to give me credit for something, or if I point out something is sexist, or take another woman's side in an argument. Then they look confused.
So I can't say no as often as a man can, or as forcefully as a man can, so no - I don't have parity but I don't get patronised as much as other women do. Hope that makes sense.

Turph I can relate to that. As a "plain" woman (even though I'm straight) I think my life has been a lot easier in some respects. Men don't (or didn't when I was younger and in the "fuckable" demographic) think of me as sexually attractive, so I get categorised as this strange in between category, kind of one of the boys but not quite.

Obviously I haven't escaped completely - predatory men will try to sexually harass/assault any woman, because it's not a sex thing, its a power thing, so I've still encountered some dodgy situations. But in the workplace it's definitely easier when men don't see you as a target to be hit on. And, as you say, strangely that attitude spills over into their interactions with you in non sexual contexts (or perhaps it's that they choose to sexualise every encounter with an attractive woman, whether she sees the situation that way or not - so we're right back to ignoring "no").

or perhaps it's that they choose to sexualise every encounter with an attractive woman
My experience is that this is pretty common. I guess the respect comes from them having to interact with us as humans instead of as "birds"

On a trip with with various other over 60s. Women made very uncomfortable by man being touchy freely with everyone. Eventually he tried it for the second time with me. Said very clearly no, I do not like being touched. He said his wife had told him that, snigger,. Well you should take notice of her. So many women did not say anything directly but moved away. Feel as always like I am seen as the contentious, one taking issues up. I don't care, glad I said it.