this post was submitted on 05 May 2025
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The other day, my parents asked me (22M) if there were any women that I find attractive (I guess because they're paranoid about me being gay lol) and I told them yes, there's a fair number of women that I've seen in public that I've found attractive.

They asked me, "Do you talk to any of them?" and I said "No??? It's inappropriate to approach women in public unless you have business with them."

I told them that it is only appropriate for a man to talk to a woman he doesn't know when the social situation is explicitly designed for meeting strangers—dating apps, hobby groups, meeting friends of friends, etc. In my view, cold approaching women you don't know just because you're attracted to them is harassment.

My parents told me that I'm being ridiculous and making excuses because I'm nervous. They are adamant that I need to learn to approach women or else I will never find a partner. I told them that times have changed and this is disrespectful and potentially predatory behavior along the lines of unsolicited flirting and catcalling. Approaching women is a violation of their personal space and could make them feel very uncomfortable, especially if they feel like they don't have an easy way out.

My parents are almost 60 and they are very conservative, so they don't exactly follow progressive discourse, and I feel like they're super out of touch on this as a result. Particularly, my mom tends to strike up conversations with other women in public, and she's skeptical when I tell her that I can't do the same thing because I'm a man and would be viewed as a potential predator.

But I also don't get out much, which makes me second-guess how distorted my understanding of the social world is from reality. My parents are like a broken clock, and sometimes they DO have a point about something despite 90% of their opinions being insane. Maybe there is a more nuanced reality that I'm not picking up on.

So I wanted to ask here. Are my parents out of touch? Am I out of touch? Are we both wrong? I want to know your opinion.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago (9 children)

Also, if you're ugly or poor, it's always unwanted and disrespectful. Whether or not you're ugly or even poor is up to them not you, so you have no way to ever know beforehand.

Women in general have made this so fucking difficult for men that it really should be mandatory for them to approach us at this point just to avoid issues.

I'm married, but worried about my sons getting in trouble for ever trying to approach a woman outside of a bar at this point, it seems the only place where asking a girl out randomly is still allowed at this point.

[–] [email protected] 72 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I do want to be sympathetic, but I have to be honest in that this seems like incel rhetoric to me.

Women are under no obligation to accept the advances of any random person in public, and framing that as a "them" problem is super disrespectful.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Nobody said they have to accept the advances. I'm saying that by restricting those advances in general, it should put the onus on women to make the advance. They can't ask men to stop asking everywhere, then complain or be confused when men aren't asking them out and this is something that is actively happening right now.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I've never heard a woman complain or be confused about not being asked out by strangers.

It seems like your sources are a fair step into the manosphere, and you and your sons would have a lot to gain by distancing yourself from that kind of influence. Nothing is as unattractive as bitterness, and you are sounding dangerously close to bitter here, and your attitude will influence your sons approach to life and relationships.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It’s been showing up on YouTube a lot in my feed all of a sudden. Like, past two weeks… some blonde lady men’s advocate trying to explain male behavior to women. She’s an interesting watch, seems more often correct than not (anecdotally).

There was a woman actually complaining about not getting cat-called anymore too. That one was a jaw dropper; but people like that are absolutely out there.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (6 children)

The Dadvocate? Sounds like the YouTuber you’re describing.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You're using anecdotal data, I have actually heard a woman say "why won't he just ask me out" and that isn't useful data either.

It keeps coming up in dating studies though, which are useful, and frequently point out that women are complaining or confused about why it's happening.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

I think you will find that "why won't he just ask me out" is not said about total strangers on the bus etc.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I dunno, this may just be my own sensibilities clouding reality, but I don't think the "onus" should be on anyone.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Men are more and more frequently getting in trouble for even just asking, which means they need to stop entirely or risk getting in trouble.

Either women take responsibility for asking the men out, or accept that they're not going to get asked out except by assholes who ignore the risks and are statistically upsetting a lot of women before they succeed.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Totally disagree on so many points. Women haven’t made things difficult, if anything men (historically) have done so because women haven’t been given a choice.

But the narrative that if you’re ugly or poor anything you do is unwanted is just not true. It’s an idea pushed by those in their parents basement justifying why they don’t have a girlfriend.

Teach your son that no means no, and when an uncomfortable woman might mean “no” without saying it, and he’ll be fine. Respect for the wishes of others takes care of 99.9999% of any trouble.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

You're just plain wrong. I've seen men yelled at for asking politely in "acceptable" social situations.

You can pretend it's not happening, but that doesn't change the fact that it occurs regularly.

The problem isn't that No isn't being respected, it's that women are getting offended at even being asked.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

If someone yelled about asking politely in an acceptable social situation, then they were wrong. That is not normal. It’s certainly not a regular occurrence.

That being said, given your prior comment, which just screams “incel, mgtow, etc”, I’m gonna go ahead and doubt you saw what you say you did.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (3 children)

It is a regular occurrence. Regular enough that it's been reflected in popular media for decades. They even make entire movies about "boy gets rejected by popular girl, boy transforms himself to win her over, boy decides he doesn't need her anymore because she's mean"

Are you honestly so naive that you think those initial rejections don't happen in real life? Everyone saw them at high school, and everyone saw them even more on social media when said girl spreads it around to cyberbully the boy even more. It's been more than 20 years since I was at high school, and even when we didn't have cellphones that shit still happened, and it didn't stop at University either.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (4 children)

So your examples are “things that happened to me in high school”, and “movies which are obviously real”?

Again I’m going to have to ask you to leave your basement and interact with real people. You are wrong.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Anyone, of either gender, would react negatively to someone interacting with them with the energy and perspective you’re displaying here.

If you think that type of reaction is common, I suggest looking at the common denominator.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago

I’m married

That poor woman.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How have women made it difficult for men?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The social expectation was that the man approaches, but now enough women have said that isn't acceptable in so many situations that it's no longer safe to do so in practically any situation.

Now men who want a relationship can essentially only find one by either being an asshole and asking when they shouldn't, or using a dating app which is a massive waste of men's time.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (2 children)

How is it unsafe for a man to approach a woman in a social situation?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

“Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” —Margaret Atwood

I think the guy you’re responding to is well down the path of believing that it’s “unsafe” to be laughed at.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And you're so far down a path that you think getting laughed at is an acceptable response to someone asking you out.

Which one is more toxic?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don’t think laughing at someone is an acceptable response to any person being respectful to another person, and your assumption that I am saying that from my comment shows more about you than me.

Anyone who would laugh at another person just because of how they look or how much money they appear to have is a flawed, unkind person.

Anyone who approaches another person and doesn’t respect if they set physical or verbal boundaries showing they don’t want to be approached is also flawed and either socially unaware/challenged or themselves unkind. And sometimes an easy way to get one of those people to go away is to laugh at them.

It’s unlikely for a cold approach to anyone asking for a date to be successful. Unlike 80 years ago, people aren’t looking for their first romantic connection to turn into life-long marriage; they actually want to have an established rapport with a person before the first date. So if someone just asks another person out with no lead up, or in certain settings, sometimes that will be so disconnected from social realities as to be absurd.

Anyway, regardless of the social intricacies of appropriate places to approach and/or ask out another, believing that women (or men) are a monolith who all will react the same way in a given situation is out of touch, disrespectful, and points to a lot of deep-seated sexism. I hope you can work that out before you pass it onto your son or he’s likely to have a much harder time finding a relationship.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

I get the feeling old mate here does not find himself in actual social situations with women very often.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The social expectation was that the man approaches, but now enough women have said that isn't acceptable in so many situations that it's no longer safe to do so in practically any situation.

AKA, "A, B, and C aren't appropriate, so D through Z aren't safe either!"

Dude rather than accept some much-needed constraints, you're having a hissy and throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

There are people in this thread saying even doing it as a bar isn't okay anymore. Name one place where a man would be safe asking without potentially being called a creep even just for a polite inquiry. It sounds like there isn't one anymore.

Not all women would react that way, but it sounds like there are enough women who think that's an acceptable response even in a bar that it's nonlonher longer viable.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

This is Ask Lemmy not Ask Incels.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

That sounds like some incel shit right there. But since you said you're married I'm forced to assume that you came by your misogyny honest?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (4 children)

men* have made this so fucking difficult ~~for men~~

FTFY

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (20 children)

Let's not attribute this to all women. This is both imposed and from the consumer culture of the patriarchal system. Less often, when it is radical feminism - here it is simply hatred of a man simply because he is a man.... I am a girl, and I often see radical feminism... Especially in the post-Soviet space... It's a wild horror... Especially those raised by mercantile princesses... If I were relaxing in a bar, I definitely wouldn't want to see a man I didn't know at that time. Why do you need parks, cafeterias, libraries and just the embankment?

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