Of course there are many reasons to reject someone that have nothing to do with how they perceive your physical and/or mental attractiveness; however, lack of the latter two things are the most common reasons not to go on a first date with someone. Regardless, logic takes a backseat to affect in romantic areas with…

It sounds like we're on the same page then; I'm not saying it causes deep emotional scars, just that yes, it sucks for a day or two, then you get over it. But I just don't get the people who say you shouldn't take it personally at all. That's just alien to me.

No, it's not THAT much of an ego bruise, but yes, rejection hurts. Unless you're a sociopath. Have you ever asked someone out and been rejected? If not, picture it in your mind; you spend the evening working up the courage to ask a guy for his number, and he smiles at you and says "sorry, not interested." Do you…

Thank you for the condescension!

I would much rather hear that you have a boyfriend than you fnd me unappealing. Its not a question of "ownership".

Fair enough. I guess we might be thinking of different gradations of "casual," I am picturing a complete mid-date change which might be confusing, but if you just mean no flirting then that is reasonable.

Other people, particularly men, do not pick up on things as clearly as you seem to hope they did. Maybe they thought you were shy, or grew nervous. Why exactly do you want to preclude them for charcterizing it as a "great date"? However they characterize it you can stillmturn down a second.

Ehhhh....I have had a fair number of female friends and while some of them offer great romantic advice, most of them offer terrible advice. Based on what some of them have told me about the advice given them by other male friends, men usually don't give good advice to women either.

It is somewhat dispiriting that for all their criticism about restrictive gender norms a lot of Jezebel writers mock men who don't meet a masculine ideal.

What "league" is this?

As a man I am very careful about sparing the feelings of women I have rejected, which frankly is not something the women that have rejected me seem to put much effort in.

Neither myself nor any man I know considers rejection by itself "rude.". There are definitely rude ways to reject someone and a fair number of women tend to hit these methods. If the guy was polite in how he asked, you can be polite in how you respond, and its not really hard to do. Don't act blatantly offended that…

Its definitely a little confusing; different statutes allow for TPOs under different situations. One of them has the requirements you mentioned, but others don't.

My background you mean? Non-sports-playing anglo-celtic straight NYC native American...

You can also get a TPO for stalking in Georgia.

I am in my late 3o's, and have probably been naked in front of other men maybe 3 times in my life at the most. And I've never had a woman complain or even mention the absence of circumcision.

I have never even thought to defend it. I didn't know until this jezebel story that I apparently have not actually been receiving oral sex all these years. On one hand it's kind of sad, but on the other hand, I heartily approve of whatever else they're doing down there.

Argh, no, talking back, expressing even irritation, is exactly what they want. Trolls troll because they get a sense of power for causing an actual human being emotional distress with a minimum of effort (a few seconds typing). You cannot draw any sort of reasonable conclusion about sexism, about power, about…

As a man I have never, ever understood the appeal.

Yep, I was the fat kid. I was also usually also the tallest kid in class so the other boys weren't willing to say anything to my face, but I still felt like a pariah, and I'm still dealing with those issues, particularly in regards to dating and relationships. Yes, women are, in general, just as likely to reject…