What do rapes, beatings and divorces have to do with handshakes?
Please get back to the matter at hand: Women expecting to be able to touch whichever man they please without first asking if they can ask for a handshake. Just like you said, entitlement issues.
I see what you did there.
Also, remember that it’s not just a woman offering her unrequested hand to a man: “I think it’s rather foolish and rude not to ask that question, “Do you shake hands?” of anyone you meet for the first time (or whom you can’t remember their answer since you saw them last)”
Bolding mine. So, it’s man on woman, woman on man, man and man and of course, woman on woman.
Being publically seen shaking hands with a strange man or simply having a strange man extend their hand toward them indicating the man believed a hand shake would occur has resulted in women been beaten and/or divorced in the United States. I could probably find a instance in which a woman has been killed over it, but my google-fu is tired.
The old courtesy rules are what they are. The right of invitating physical touch is reserved to women. If you don’t like them advocate for multicultural manners in which everybody rights and personal space are more protected.
The fantasy world you live in sounds horrifying.
No it’s not. You think it is? Bless your heart. 
I don’t have to. Men and women offering their hands to one another is already the norm in my culture. You’re the one advocating sexism.
Do you have anything new to say?
So what’s the list of ZPG’s kooky beliefs up to so far?
Only among those who lack manners. I think it’s rather disgusting how lower-class behavior has been able to infect U.S. society. The WASPs could be snobs, but at least they had taste and actively tried to be polite even if they didn’t like people.
1). Without adequate access to abortion women have no other choice because of situation 2.).
3). Slowly read my comments outloud and get a friend to explain the bigger words. I never said handshake is rape (though it can be a form of sexual harassment). I will always maintain that any man who tries to force a woman to shake his hand is more likely to be a rapist than one who respects her right to body privacy.
wait, i think i missed these, where are they?
Fantasy world? The battered women’s shelter I volunteer recently admitted a woman beaten black and blue because her husband thought a salesman was flirting with her. And yes, him (the male sales clerk) sticking his hand out to the woman was part of it. People should consider how their behavior can effect others.
It damn well should be. No woman is safe or free until men understand that our bodies are not their property. Physical contact requires consent.
If you think having a man extend a hand to you instead of waiting for your permission is good, what next do you plan to let him do to you without your permission. I use to work in a old money law firm, one female senior partner explained that men only started breaking those old social rules because they could not openly insult working women. It was a way of sorting between Our Kind and Not Our Kind and the male executive who jets his hand out at woman employee would fire the junior clerk who tried to do that with his wife or daughter.
Well, she was wrong. Male executives starting shaking hands with female executives when female executives started insisting on gender neutral treatment in the workplace.
Do you read the stuff that you type?
You’re saying that men shouldn’t offer their hands to women because we don’t own women. So you’re suggesting that offering a hand to shake is a sign of domination. But you think that women should be free to offer their hands to men. So you’re suggesting that it’s OK for women to dominate men. You say that your body doesn’t belong to men but you seem to think that my body belongs to you.
This is elementary school level logic, not rocket surgery.
Another swing and a miss.
I guess she just forgot the part about how a higher-ranking male offering his hand to a lower-ranking female is a rapist.
I’ve been away for a couple of days, so I’m playing catchup. Ninja, thanks for the most useful and edifying post on this page.
The 6,000 or more history of the patriarchy treating women like chattel, the fact that rape in the Western world (outside of prisons) is overwhelmingly men raping women, the fact that in most cases the man has more muscle fibers than the woman and could physically overpower her has to be calculated into the equation.
So in your world the person at fault in this situation is the salesman for trying to shake her hand, not her husband for beating the shit out of her over the imagined intention behind the behavior of a third party?
I have dined and worked with a fair share of well-to-do people (some were nouveau riche but not all). The only men (female here) who did not offer me their hands first were those born before the second world war (in which case, I would offer mine). The others treated me no differently than my male bretheren.
BTW, this thread is highly amusing.
The hilarity and complete round the bend wackiness almost dwarfs that already shown in this thread. Read at your own risk:
Adoption: Why say Mom and Dad?
Of Infanticide and Abortion
So… that’s the person you’re dealing with here.
OK, I’m going to go ahead and just repeat what I said in my previous post.
You’re saying that men shouldn’t offer their hands to women because we don’t own women. So you’re suggesting that offering a hand to shake is a sign of domination. But you think that women should be free to offer their hands to men. So you’re suggesting that it’s OK for women to dominate men. You say that your body doesn’t belong to men but you seem to think that my body belongs to you.
This is elementary school level logic, not rocket surgery.
I think there’s plenty of fault to go around. Most of it on the husband for beating her. However, the salesman could have been more careful. Part of sales is reading people only this case not only did he not make the sale, he committed actions that lead to another person getting hurt. If he had asked four little words (Do you shake hands?), he probably would have guessed from the answer given that this was an instance where his behavior could cause trouble for the woman.