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I don't want my comments to be confused with thinking there is anything "wrong" with men and their sexuality. It has always seemed completely natural and normal to me for men to pursue opportunities and there's never been any real need to argue about it. As long as I have had the opportunity to know men, I have understood (from their own conversations with me) that there is a certain amount of objectification of women going on all the time. And I could have sworn that this same self-observation has been bandied around with much humor and openness right here at TFP, but either that was just my imagination or talking about it from my jaded, old perspective hits a nerve of some kind. It's ok. I understand. But I also understand that the guy who approaches me out of the blue while I am sorting socks at the laundromat wouldn't be as interested in my opinion on the temperature outside if I were there sorting socks with another man. Or if I were a man (exceptions apply, of course). That doesn't mean that I hate him, that I will be rude or unfriendly toward him, that I think he is immoral or perverted or that there is no possibility of moving past that initial encounter to become friends. And it certainly doesn't mean that I consider him to be a threat of some kind. I do not equate male sexuality with criminality. I'm just tired.
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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce
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