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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 30, 2023

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Elevatorgate was really a problem of bad timing. It's two in the morning, she's been talking and involved in events all day, she's tired and possibly a little drunk and all she wants is to grab a few hours sleep before the events of the next day. This is not the time to wait until you get her alone in the elevator to ask for a rub of the relic. Slightly drunk and obviously clueless guy is going to come across as mildly threatening in that scenario, even if his intentions are harmless and he's operating on "this is a modern, progressive, liberated, and atheist woman, surely she'll be up for casual sex at the drop of a hat unlike the Catholic Irish girls I've grown up with!" assumptions.

Think about it, gentlemen: some guy you don't know and only met ten minutes ago is hinting he wants to get into your knickers when it's way too late and you're way too tired and not in the mood - does this sound like the recipe for romance?

I mean they were going back from the bar. when all you want to do is grab a few hours sleep before the next day you aren't really hanging out in a hotel bar for hours. I think the elevator was a maximally bad place to make the proposition but if you can't proposition people at or around bars where on earth can you?

...well definitely not in an elevator in the wee hours of the morning. i'm actually kinda surprised at the controversiality of @FarNearEverywhere's comment. it seems obvious if you haven't been irony poisoned.

Yes, I agree not in the elevator. But that really doesn't fit with the previous post's characterization. The beginning and end of the issue is the enclosed space, not the whole "I'm so tired, woe is me" thing.

Most men would appreciate the offer from a woman.

If you agree with this and say "that's not the same because men and women are different!", then whatever happened to gender equality and feminism? If men and women aren't the same in this scenario, it's bizarre that we treat the same in every other "unequal" scenario, so feminism/liberalism itself breaks down.

Even hardcore feminists (who I doubt are in this thread) don't argue that men and women are the completely the same, socially or biologically.

The biological differences in this case are obvious, but even socially: just about any woman coming on to a guy is a signal to hin that he's a hot piece of ass; just about any man coming on to a woman is a signal to her that she has an ass (and maybe not even much of that).