French movie star defends men's 'right' to chat up women

Submitted by Mastodon on Tue, 2018-01-09 19:17

Article here. Excerpt:

'France's most revered actress Catherine Deneuve hit out Tuesday at a new "puritanism" sparked by sexual harassment scandals, declaring that men should be "free to hit on" women.

She was one of around 100 French women writers, performers and academics who wrote an open letter deploring the wave of "denunciations" that has followed claims that Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein raped and sexually assaulted women over decades.

They claimed that the "witch-hunt" that has followed threatens sexual freedom.

"Rape is a crime, but trying to seduce someone, even persistently or cack-handedly, is not -- nor is men being gentlemanly a macho attack," said the letter published in the daily Le Monde.

"Men have been punished summarily, forced out of their jobs when all they did was touch someone's knee or try to steal a kiss," said the letter, which was also signed by Catherine Millet, author of the hugely explicit 2002 bestseller "The Sexual Life of Catherine M.".'

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There are two common-law rights people the world over have and it is from these two rights that most if not all our other rights come from, at least when discussing interpersonal interactions. These are:

1. The right to inquire
2. The right to be left in peace

These two rights are THE most basic, fundamental human rights we have in one another's face and underpin all of civilized society. Right no. 1 gives us the right to ask the time of day. Right no. 2 gives us the right to walk away from anyone who exercises right no. 1 or to say "Go away and leave me alone," and expect that request to be honored.

For the above reasons I disagree with this actress. Once a woman has said in so many words, "Buzz off," the person talking to her should buzz off. However if he or she does not right away, this rises to the level, in the great majority of cases, of rudeness. It's only a problem if after several "Buzz offs" does the person persist. Then, it's harassment as far as I am concerned.

YET, more than a few people think if she says "Buzz off," just once, that should be that. I agree. But failing to buzz off immediately shouldn't under the great bulk of cases rise to an arrestable offense. Further there are some people, feminists mostly, who think if a woman adjudges your attentions, even polite inoffensive ones, to be "unwanted", you have indeed crossed a criminal line and ought to be arrested. This is what feminist jurisprudence would look like should it be allowed to run rampant in our legal system which, BTW, is a major goal of feminism.

A large number of women find men being politely and to a degree "outrageously" persistent to be very flattering and may object to the attention outwardly but inwardly love the attention. But that does not describe ALL women, just some percentage of them. You can't tell by looking at one/talking to one which kind she is, however, so I would buzz off the moment she asks/tells you to. And in fact I rather think the same standard applies to same-sex interactions wherein party A tells party B to buzz off.

This actress strikes me as the kind who gets off on being the center of men's "outrageous" attentions.

My observation: why feed the stuck-up priss' little ego? A polite hello and don't bother further with her. And since so many females these days have the idea in their heads that any attention from men is either unwelcome or "very presumptuous", I suggest to my fellow men that you simply avoid "chatting" women up entirely.

For those of you who think in terms of "game" I will tell you as a man nearly 50 years of age that I have had plenty of opportunities to chat up women and have done so and you know what? It comes to nothing 99.9999% of the time. It feeds her weak little ego and does nothing for you. So don't bother with talking to them unless you have to. I still manage to get the action I enjoy in life without running around acting like a pussy-begging douchebag.

Just sayin'.

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Submitted by Matt on Tue, 2018-01-09 20:28