Not to hear my dad tell it, rest his soul. Be aware. Take precautions. You never know. With a subtext of: you know I worry and I’d be devastated if anything happened to you. It left me in the odd position of feeling obliged to treat everyone with suspision (that translates as not going anyplace ‘unsafe’) and of resenting having to, because I was doing it more to protect my dad’s feelings than to protect myself.
Question: Do you feel that every sitcom that shows Dad in a tizzy about his daughter dating or shows him threatening the date when he shows up is insulting all men? Because if women are being insulting when they admit publicly that its uncomfortable having to be on guard against abuse, then it should be insulting when men are similarly on guard, right?
We should just assume that you don’t want to know? That you already know, but don’t want to feel it? Sorry. We assumed that if we could handle it, you could handle the echo of it.
Saw a cartoon recently where a man was lying on the road bleeding. Someone comes up and asks what happened. The man on the road says “Some driver just ran over me and didn’t even stop to help.” The other guy replies angrily, “Not all drivers are like that, asshole!” and stomps off.
When, through no fault of your own, and one of your fellow human beings seems fearful or nervous around you for no reason you can see, what is the compassionate thing to do?
Of course this will differ from situation to situation (though there are likely thematic similarities across the board). But the question is, are you doing that compassionate thing?
You are? Go to two. Else go to three.
You’re good then. If the fellow human being doesn’t seem to realize this, continue acting compassionately. Nice work. Thumbs up and good job.
Don’t be a dunderhead. Think the next thought. Why does no one just think the next thought?
It’s a response to what it is said “women need to be taught,” as a class. Whatever you want to say about how that isn’t sexist, an exactly parallel and exactly as valid argument will be available for how the “men need to be taught” statement also isn’t sexist.