Okay…I don’t know yet how to respond to you Katina @KPr2204, but below is something I did not post 3 months ago when others were posting above. It may speak a bit to what you are getting at though from a male perspective. Read at risk of not understanding my ranting and raving.
I think I refrained from posting as I felt I might have offended someone. I was also playing around with the idea that the next demand for rights will be to go beyond gender…to speak for the rights of those born into a body but who identify as bodiless. @johnnydavis54 might say that I am channeling my inner (Alexander) Pope, though I never have any intention at degrading others or mocking their POV. Again, read at own risk…
phhheewww…things are (were) getting heated in here. Looks like you need a physically hetero-male who sees himself as (or who desires to eventually live as) a bodyless, sexually neutral individual to intervene…where are my rights g-dammit?! When do I get to augment myself into Light? When will my Immortality and Freedom be recognized…when will I be liberated from this stupid vessel of a body? Before I turn this into a South Park-like parody and offend anyone (which is NOT my intention, I wish to present a story that I had hoped to present on this thread back in November (around the time that MeToo cases started to arise) but resisted. See also:
My story:
I occasionally attract men. I often would go to lakeside park spots to read and/or smoke marijuana when in high school and early college. Besides hotspots for potheads and loners, parks seem to be frequented by gay men, previously (and possibly) one of the few safe daytime spots to search for similar gay-kin. I was searching for quiet and nature. Four times I was asked to come home with males. They would start the conversation with a typical friendly “nice weather” or “great day, right?” …my typical response…then I would receive the proposal. I did not mind and politely declined. My “MeToo” moment comes during a time at the YMCA. I had become decent friends with a professor at a local university and would chat while swimming or cycling. We were on the same schedule and would often retire to the showers and the steam room around the same time. I have always been one to remain physically hidden and always cover up with a towel. Some men are fine with walking around with only body in tow, and that is fine with me, but I cover up since I know the territory and dont wish to give wrong impressions. We happened to be talking alone in the steam room one day and out of the blue he becomes clearly aroused…then proceeds to approach me, on the verge of caressing me. I say no thanks, you know I’m married. He reminds me that he is too and I tell him to sit down, on the other bench area. Quite shaken at this unexpected advancement, I act like nothing had just happened and tell him goodbye. We did not talk after that.
I spent weeks thinking about the situation. Did I lead him on? No, this was an older male, professor. I saw the relationship as a friendly teacher/student style relationship. We hardly shared a deep, intimate conversation. I thought further about the situation. Should I report this? It was the YMCA and it was in a steam room… what can one expect?! Yet he is a professor and, does he prey upon his students? Likely not, as, again, this was a YMCA moment, in a setting, like the park, that promotes the subtle communications between “seekers” …I persuaded myself that, though I had a paid membership, I understand and respect the setting. There might be contradictions running through your mind now: “but you were violated, Doug” “not reporting this can lead to more issues” …I see, though, a gay man, a black man, doubly oppressed by society, past and present, that had a momentary lapse of reason. I would have preferred a “would you like to come home with me” and my “no thanks” over the “prick-thinking” that was going on in his head and body at the time.
Why do I bring this up now? Maybe because I am interested in the positive movements, movements that start small but snowball into greatness, influencing others towards a better state. The Sexual harassment/ MeToo movement arrived as definitely positive for those able to free themselves from sexual harassment, yet it is a negative trend, once that latches onto the male and leeches his life, what @DurwinFoster called a movement “without an ethics of inclusion – to punish men (usually) without due process.” Human relations are much more complicated than simple victim vs perpetrator.
The males in our society, or the ‘pathetic’ males perhaps, have a misunderstanding of sexuality. And, mostly so in American society. These individuals are on moral code level of 2 or less. Or express the level 2 more frequently than we would hope.
This male drive towards power is dominant in all of our relationships. The pathetic male, whether in a position of power or powerless, will misuse their power, will aim to achieve the dominant male power over another even in a time when this power is unnecessary. The sexual harassment issues are stemming from the misuse of testosterone. We are heading in the direction of a misuse of thought. I can imagine a teenage boy staring at a girl. The girl could potentially report the boy for eye-rape and the boy would be shunned, possibly suspended for the trauma caused by this act of gaze. In reality, he was only attempting to keep his testosterone at bay, he was wanting to make the situation better for communication, bypassing the sexual thoughts that appear in his head. Or maybe he was talking with the girl and glanced at the wrong spot a few times. This is another potential situation.
All males have this drive. Some have formed stronger fantasies, less realistic applications of the sexual drive. Some can channel out of the drive and use it for creativity.
End of previous post…any thoughts?