To be clear, I'm not commenting on vanity, though that may or may not play a role. What I am commenting on is this condemnation of all men automatically. It's this idea that a man who approaches a strange woman under any context, in any circumstances, must automatically be a predator.
One in six North American women are the victim of sexual assault in their lifetime. Alright, I'll buy that, but the same statistics indicate that the overwhelming majority of assaults are perpetrated by someone known to the victim and roughly 70% involve the consumption of alcohol by the victim, the perpetrator or both. Just adding those two little tidbits in there changes the picture a bit, doesn't it? Suddenly it's not random strangers violating women willy nilly, but rather looks to be more like dates gone wrong, people taking things too far. Roughly a third of these sexual assaults are being committed in the victim's own home, and a mere
2% were committed by someone unknown to the victim.
Statistics all culled from
here, if you're wondering.
Meanwhile, a man can't sit in a park on a summer day without being labelled a creep. He can't so much as look at a woman, let alone exchange pleasantries. God forbid he needs directions, and it's absolute horror if he has the audacity to express any form of sexuality around a woman who isn't agreeable to it. Naturally a woman doing the same is harmless.
You want anecdotes? I've never sexually assaulted a woman. Like eden, I was once accused of it by a young lady who initiated sexual contact with me, and retroactively decided to label it assault after going back to her ex-boyfriend. I can also tell you that it's rare for me to think of a woman within a sexual context unless I'm actively engaged in a sexual relationship with her, and even when I do it's nothing so concrete as picturing her naked. Am I not meant to appreciate an attractive woman? Is that taboo now too?
When did we start judging people based on their thoughts anyway? Or even better, when did we start judging them based on what we assume their thoughts to be?
On second thought, don't answer that.