Though I think a man should have the right to refuse to shake hands for whatever reason, I tend to leave the issue of man-to-man handshaking to be resolved between the men involved. Whenever I see two men shaking hands for no real reason, I tend to think shallow character. Man-to-woman is specifically vile because of the centuries of oppression of women, because of working women being confined to the sex industry for so long, because of how sexual harassment is not taken as seriously as it should be, and because rape and female battery is still too common in the world. The principle is simple men do not touch women without their permission. Men do not try to intimidate or embarass or blackmail women into touching them either.
Really, you have spoken with every woman in the world. Likewise, I have never had a woman confide in me that she felt insulted if a man didn’t stick his hand out at her. I have had many women confide in me how uncomfortable, humiliated and threatened, they have felt by men forcing to shake hands with them. I have known women that have quit their jobs and redrew from public and some who have become dangerously depressed over the lack of respect they have had to work under. Etiquette is about respecting everyone’s differences, not imposing your whims on others. If you want someone to touch your hand as a casual greeting, ask politely, just like you ask someone to pass an object to you rather than reach over them to get it. It’s simple courtesy.
So my graduation ceremony reduced a good chunk the female students to emotionally troubled hermits, with a desire to stab the President and Dean?
Edit: just what do you want for equality? Seems like shaking one groups hand but not the other says the group isn’t equal. Handshaking is a gesture of equals.
So tell us again how offering a hand to shake is forcing anyone to do anything.
Withdrew from public life because a man offered to shake hands? Became dangerously depressed? Bull fucking shit.
Really. I’ve asked three times now. What do you mean by forced? To me that implies that some guy tackled the woman, sat on her, grabbed her hand and shook it. What exactly do you mean by “forced to shake hands?”
She made it clear the last time we did this. Extending your hand to a woman is forcing her to shake hands, in her world.
You sure do know a lot of pathetically fragile people.
That was certainly the etiquette in western culture a few decades ago. But you understand that etiquette changes with time, don’t you?
One wonders how extensively she applies this philosophy. Does offering food force her to eat? Does offering a job force her to work there? Does offering advice force her to take it?
Yes. ZPG Zealot, you seem to be implying that some nontrivial proportion of women feel that, when a man offers to shake a woman’s hand, he is acting disrespectfully by attempting to force her to touch him against her will. This flies in the face not only of my common sense and personal experience (as a North American, middle class, adult male, with significant amounts of time spent in higher-educational and professional settings) but – apparently – that of pretty much everybody else here.
So I’d appreciate some kind of citation, anything, that demonstrates or even indicates the existence of some nontrivial number of women who feel “uncomfortable, humiliated and threatened[…] by men forcing to shake hands with them” or who “quit their jobs and redrew from public” for such reasons.
In my culture, the handshake is an overwhelmingly agreed-upon way to greet a new person in a professional context. It is a way of saying “my hands are open, I am not in a position to harm you, we are equals”, and is – for me – completely void of any hint of aggression. Indeed, if I were to see a man who did not offer to shake the hand of a woman (particularly one who is his professional equal) my first inclination would be to wonder if that man feels that women are inferior.
I consider any woman who shakes my hand to have made a declaration of Thumb War.
Okay, I get it. If I whip out Simba I’m forcing her to shake him. 
And anyone who, like you, freaks out because someone offers to touch you, has a problem understanding boundaries. Sticking my hand out in front of you is not against the law in any place in the U.S.
You claim to want to live in a society that accepts multicultural practices, but you refuse to accept them yourself. You call us bigots, when you are the one calling 99% of all men rapists.
You know, lately I’ve been accused of throwing this word around too lightly, but I think it fits here. You are a bigot. You pretend to be about cultural awareness, but what you really are is bigoted against any culture that is different from your own. You just can’t seem to grasp the fact that standard American morals are different from your Roma ones.
But the one thing you are not is a troll. So, um, congratulations.
I love this
Bullshit.
woman and baby playing in house
‘Hey non-related baby, sounds like your male guardian’s coming back from work!’
man enters
‘How’s the little cuckoo and his female guardian’s day been?’
‘Oh, we’ve had a lovely day, male co-guardian with whom I have a voluntary non-procreational sexual relationship! This baby here nearly managed to call me Mrs. Johnson! And I found out something fantastic, but first, how’s your day been? You look terrible’
‘Oh yes female partner, I’ve had an awful day. Our new business partner started today; she’s female, despite the male dominated environment. Anyway, you remember Jones? He offered to shake her hand when she came in!’
‘Oh my word!’
‘Yes, wife, I dragged him off and phoned the police immediately, but they just don’t take sexual assult seriously… I assured her the other co-workers didn’t think she was a prostitute at all, but she must have been quite traumatised, she didn’t even speak to me for the rest of the day, despite the clear signal that I’m not a rapist, and well, because I threatened the patriachy, the boss has given me a written warning.’
‘Oh, the poor woman. I suggest she gets herself to a healer or wise-woman as soon as she can, she must still be in denial…’
‘Anyway female co-guardian , you and the non-related baby, what was the good news?’
‘Oh well, I was looking into his true family’s history… oh… isn’t he so adorable, I just can’t understand why his mother never strangled him at birth…’
‘I know co-guardian, but then, she was a heroin addict, one can’t expect her to make a rational decision, and maybe she wanted to be sure of having a spare kidney in later life, but do please carry on!’
‘Well, I was looking through the hospital records, and I found out his real, true mother has a living half-sister! Yes, she’s 19 and in college!’
‘Fantastic news female co-guardian! Well, don’t let’s waste a minute, I say we get drive down there straight away, and dump him on her doorstep! After all, he will share an average of 25% of her genetic material, so would obviously be the best person to care for a baby she doesn’t know exists!’
‘Yes, isn’t it marvellous, I was so worried he might accidently call me ‘mom’, I mean, it’s such an easy word for a baby to accidently let slip out, then what would people think?’
two adults and unconnected baby skip happily off to the car
That’s a lie. Or a sin of confirmation bias. You had women in that last thread *and *this one tell you that they would feel insulted if a man didn’t offer to shake her hand in a professional setting.
Then they were as big crybabies as you. Grow up. Big scary men offering to shake your hand make you all feel threatened? You seriously don’t understand that the rest of the COUNTRY doesn’t dream of handshaking to be offensive to anyone, that it’s in your own head?
Awesome. 
If you win, do you claim the right to rape, loot and pillage?