An informal poll about attitudes - REVISED

[unixronin]

Caution:  May be inflammatory.

Just for the sake of possibly-morbid curiosity:  I direct you to this article that perspicuity pointed out to me elsewhere.  Please go and read it.  Particularly the beginning.

Now, please answer only one poll.  First up, asking my readers of the feminine persuasion here:

[Poll #1472271]

For my chromosomally heterogeneous readers, I offer the following alternate poll with your own seven eight choices:

[Poll #1472272]

My personal feeling is that if you regard every male as a probable rapist lacking only the opportunity, I want some way to know in advance, because if the very first thought that goes through a woman's head is, "Is that man going to try to rape me?", I don't even want to start a conversation.  I find the whole attitude insulting, to say the least.  It's way too high a disadvantage to start out having to first of all convince someone that you're not planning to rape or murder them, and if I knew in advance that I was going to be up against that, I'd move on immediately to talk to someone saner.  I don't know how people who approach the world with that kind of level of fear every day can even function, but I do believe that it's not my responsibility to walk on eggshells everywhere I go, just to avoid triggering someone else's paranoia.

(Heh.  I just discovered I have to answer both polls to be able to see the results of my own poll.  Pretty obviously, so does everyone else.  Please note I am RESUBMITTING to add a "Just show me the results" entry to each poll.  If you already voted, this means your vote will be lost.  Feel free to vote again.  We apologize for the confusion.)

Comments

[house-pundit.livejournal.com]

It doesn't brand you a rapist to initiate a conversation. But most guys don't think of it this way: when she makes eye contact with you and smiled, *she* initiated the conversation. You just either followed up, gave a maybe, or shot *her* down in flames by letting your bored eyes slide across her on to something else.

Even if she doesn't it's okay to say hi. What's not okay is if she's giving bug off signals-- looking away, or looking back at her book, or is saying as few words to you as possible--continuing to pester her

*That* doesn't brand a guy a rapist. It just brands him as someone who's being a jerk and doesn't *care* that she's not interested--or, every bit as bad, doesn't notice. That is an attribute of men who ignore "no." Not *all* men who occasionally make jerks of themselves ignore "no," but guys who ignore "no" will typically make jerks of themselves in this general fashion. So yeah, it sure as hell increases the probability that the guy who's ignoring "bug off" is "that guy."