Originally Posted by enviroian

Ah, yeah why didn't you get her number??

Originally Posted by MSPeconomist

Originally Posted by ajGoes

What would you do? I'm a late-middle-aged man. I was in a middle seat. A young woman sat in the aisle seat and immediately started chatting. I soon knew she was a college senior being flown to grad-school interviews at the universities' expense. I happen to be conversant in a field close to hers, so we could have an intelligent conversation.

After a while, she got absorbed in her work and I started watching a video. At some point I fumbled a bit with the armrest to find the "recline" button. She noticed me fumbling and, very cluelessly, proceeded to raise the armrest. I'm small, she was small, so I didn't have to do anything to avoid touching her. I thought it was kind of charmingly naive on her part, but now I'm wondering whether I should have found a way to point out that she might not want to do that when seated next to an older man she didn't know.

Any thoughts?

Originally Posted by RollAnotherFatOne

interestingly, in our brave new world, with equality, it's people's perceptions that are the reality, rather than traditional physical actions and behaviours.
if people perceive a look, then it can be argued about some form of discrimination (no matter how nonsensical that sounds).
similarly, if men may flirt or say something that could be perceived as suggestive, it can be seen as an 'assault' or harassment.
accordingly, men have to make sure there are no blurred lines.
as a society we can't suggest ways for women to avoid such situations as this is considered 'victim blaming' - even if there is no actual victim (because it's a hypothetical discussion). in the new world, we are made to feel that men are to blame, and men's actions are where the fault lies and that is solely where changes need to be made.