For those Gentlemen Callers

This goes for those who are still singles out there. Thanks to PolicyMic, my mind started racing again. It's weekend time and people want to have fun, possibly drink and hopefully meet someone enchanting that happens to be attractive. Can somebody tell me is it still social etiquette to ask for a phone of someone you like or have we all become paranoid? It seems that some ladies are often harassed to the point of receiving an aggressive behavior from men that results from casual rejection. Well, it has not been my place yet but I'm pretty sure I'd get terrified if a guy twice my size wants to knock me out and have fun with me. Obviously, alcohol does not help in keeping your cool but it is not an excuse for harmful behavior. And what about situations where drinking is not involved?

Some women are not lucky enough to only receive insults, some of them get beaten or raped while others get shot at. Whatever the statistics are in these facts there is proof this kind of things happen all the time, and not because it has become common means that it is the right thing to do. Some people do not know how to handle rejection and the Feminist Phone Intervention came up with a way to avoid unwanted confrontations. Their resolve was to activate a fake phone number service that sends a Bell Hooks quote to whoever calls or texts. It has promising results and has proven that it is user friendly *around thousands of calls in the first day, with no signs of slowing down." according to their website. However, just as anything in this world is great as well as questionable, people are objecting on whether this is a good solution to the problem. When I read the article in PolicyMic my thought was "I wish this thing was around a couple of years ago." Apart from saving me the trouble of having the guy call the number right in front of me, it could have helped me in avoid meet pushy people. But in the comments section there were some that thought this "passive aggressive alternative" is just as bas as the girl saying she has a boyfriend to scare other men away.

As I scrolled down the comments kept on being apathetic. Some users said to just say "NO" was enough (as if rapists listen to their victims) others suggested to always have a friend with you but trust me, read how this woman gets assaulted in the restroom of a bar after rejecting this guy's dance moves here and tell me how to get a friend to protect me in that situation. As shocking as this is, it's not the only story I could find ... there is this McLover who got beat up to death after not giving her phone number to a stranger (read article) or how this woman got to punish the culprit her own way read me. Thus let it be noted that after the drive-by shooting in Isla Vista, CA raised awareness of male aggression toward women rejection.

I do have to agree that this is an easy cop-out for girls who are plainly not interested and that some good guys will be getting the short end of the stick. I personally prefer to bargain a guy's could-be-good-intentions over having a guy annoy me day and night ... or worse. So what if men are offended when they figure out it's a fake number, wanna know how women get offended over male "good intentions?" stay updated with abortion legislation in Texas. In the end it comes down to the male wanting to override female autonomy and it gets out of hand pretty often. Humans have to accept the fact that as living beings we are also animal, and when we become aware of this instinct it's easier to adapt our behaviors. Yes, social standards suck but we don't have to harm each other. When will we stop feeling the paranoia?