[Image-1
Four am, “Sunday morning” (we all know it was still Saturday night), you (guy) were walking down Preston Street and I (girl) had just pulled up to my house. I got out of my car despite the looming possibility of rape since I was tired and had my keys in hand to defend myself if need be. You made eye contact and said “Hello,” just like any other normal person would at any other normal time of the day. I felt stupid for fearing the worst. Thanks for being the kind of fellow who makes a gal feel safe at night. There should be more normal, non-rapey seeming people like you out after 1am. —Night owlette
This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 3, 2014.
Wow – some 190,000 adult males in H^lif^x and you met the one non-rapist.
Lucky, lucky you.
ivan, ivan, ivan….
damned if we do, and damned if we don’t. so op calls this guy NORMAL NON-RAPEY and you pick at her? she said NORMAL. doh! that means she thinks NORMAL men aren’t rapey (WTF is ‘rapey”?)
it is NOT an attack against all men when someone talks about rape, rapists, possibility of rape, threat of rape, fear of rape or the dangers in the dark. don’t blame women for bringing up the subject. you, being a NORMAL non-rapey kind of guy, are on the same ‘side’ as op. she’d be happy to know YOU and others like YOU, were strolling about at 1am. but there will always be rapists, so there will always be fear. but it’s not fear of guys like you. the NORMAL guys, as she says. normal. most. the majority. the usual. sheesh
(mm I know I am playing fast and loose with the meaning of normal, but I am going with what I believe was op’s use of the word)
I dunno, GDM. On those rare occasions that I feel myself to be the recipient of a condescending compliment (or a compliment at all), I tend to focus on the condescension, not the compliment. It’s not quite the same thing, but if one were to post a love thanking young black males at a bus stop after dark for helping to correct the image of “disposable people” by NOT robbing, raping and beating the OP – I doubt if people would be responding with plaudets and kudos. Just my take on a contentious subject.
I think the condescension is in the eye of the Ivan. not that I blame ya. when I was in the first flush of fervid feminism I saw rampant sexism everywhere, but I GOT OVER IT. and stopped bristling at the drop of a pronoun or wink.
Believe me, when I get like this I’m the first to admit what a bore I’m being.
But, since picking fights is one of the freedoms we still have, every now and then I’ll exercise it. The one thing I absolutely will not do is let anyone else determine the R.O.E’s. Then eventually I lose interest and start to wonder “What’s for dinner”
jerk rubbed pork tenderloin on a bed of spinach with liberal globs of Balkan yogurt and chunks of feta.
( I had our esteemed PM over to help prep dinner)
(and you were supposed to bristle at the condescension in my reply – it was dripping with it)