Gender roles are likely at play here. We learn this systemically.

Males mistake social cues from women due to gender-based stereotypes. Women's kindness is assumed as flirting sometimes. Women's kind rejections or boundaries or even sarcastic comments are considered by men to be "rude," when they don't realize how much men have harassed women historically and systemically, so women have to be stern sometimes to get their point across. Still, women are "supposed to be nice," and in some cases seen as "submissive to men." This is gender-role stereotyping, which makes it challenging for men and women to get along when men make assumptions like that. Women and men can assert their boundaries and defend themselves, and both have the freedom to be aggressive when the situation warrants.

But studies in criminal justice reveal how women are punished more severely than men for the same type of aggression because of the gender-role stereotypes.

Additionally, when it comes to sexual attraction, it doesn't matter so much that the woman hasn't said much about herself because (unlike women who are sometimes stereotypically concerned with getting to know someone before being attracted to them) men stereotypically find attraction in a woman's body before anything else. It's hard to communicate boundaries when respect is blinded by gender-role stereotypes. Being straightforward is most appropriate, but that's not how we were socialized either, and again, women get attacked for being too loud, talkative, mean, etc. We're not. We're just asserting our boundaries.

Also, in domestic violence and intimate partner and stalking and sexual harassment cases, it is typical for either the man or the woman or the nonbinary person who has an insecure attachment to miss social cues like when a person isn't interested romantically. Just because a person isn't interested romantically doesn't mean that they can't just remain friends when it is safe to do so. On the other hand, sometimes we don't feel comfortable even being friends, and that's okay, too. Not everyone is a good fit for relationship of any kind with one another. It doesn't mean that anyone owes you something, nor does it mean that it's a negative reflection on who you are. Occasionally, we could all use some social skills to help us improve our relationships, but still, no one owes us anything, and we certainly don't owe anyone else anything. When insecure attachment rules our decision-making, that's where violence comes in the form of harassment, stalking, sexual assault, molestation, revenge, rape, verbal assaults and threats, holding someone hostage, forcing someone to engage in a relationship, cornering someone psychologically and/or physically, psychologically abusing someone, socially isolating someone so they don't have any social capital/capable guardianship to help them escape from a torturous relationship that is unhealthy and very insecure in nature - both on the part of the offender (feeling like someone owes them something) and the victim (feeling like there's something inherently wrong with themselves). When both parties are insecure, they feel they can't escape the relationship. When one party is insecure, it puts pressure on the secure party to fight back, which is stressful at times.

Those with CEN, childhood maltreatment histories, personality disorders, and paraphilic disorders often have insecure types of attachments.

Those who were socialized to the extremes with gender-role stereotypes (e.g., "women must remain silent and submissive and bow down to the man for the sake of being feminine and soft and lady-like" and "men must be strong, in control, manly, macho, masculine") will also fall into the category of insecure attachments because that has now become their value, belief systems, etc., which drives their loyalty to their value-based causes, tribes, groups, and relationships (e.g., being belonged and accepted in the group). It's harder for such people to escape such self-inflicted bigotry as well as other-inflicted bigotry when much hidden forms of child maltreatment comprise extremist (deviant) teachings, which has also been shown in some studies on deviant parents raising deviant children and thus those who will recidivate in the criminal justice system - both as offenders and victim-offenders. But the kind of child rearing they had experienced often goes ignored as forms of psychological abuse, emotional abuse, childhood emotional neglect, and overall childhood neglect; they are almost welcomed and accepted as forms of expression and parental rights, as opposed to the need for children's rights - much at the detriment of both the neglected and abused children who grow up to be victim-offenders, personality disordered, mentally ill, revictimized, criminalized, repeat victim-offenders, harmful to society, perpetuating of historical traumas, perpetuating of systemic traumas, perpetuating of institutional betrayal traumas, perpetuating of intergenerational traumas handed over and over again in each family and offspring, perpetuating of ritualistic traumas, perpetuating of threats against others' safety (including the overall public safety), perpetuating against the economic costs of recidivism and victimization, etc. But, we accept such consequences because of the systemic beliefs that genders should be rigidly defined and normed to fit into a feminine versus masculine stereotype. Sexual attraction for some has become a sport instead of something romantic or chosen, or even the reality that not all people will be able to find a mate or have sexual attraction at all (such as those who are asexual and/or disabled and/or religiously celibate and/or medically celibate).

Whatever the case may be, this conversation has much to do with stereotypes, gender-norming, gender-based bigotry, sexism, and more.