Stand Your Ground Law, Meet The Bar Scene
Sometimes you come across something perfect…
Via Mike Stanfill of The Far Left Side
(Mike offers free comics and has a support link so I tossed him some cash. Brilliance deserves a reward.)
Besides being funny, there’s so much truth here.
I am sure almost every woman has a story to tell, here is one of mine…
I was 25 and having drinks with friends at Harpoon Hannah’s (yeah, I know.). A man approached our table and asked me to dance. I thanked him for the offer, but declined. I even offered an excuse, “I’m hanging out with friends tonight. I haven’t seen them in a while, but thank you.” Frankly, my “no, thank you” should have been enough, but I get that approaching a stranger and asking them to dance can be difficult, so I always tried to be kind.
Can anyone guess what happened next? He moved in closer to me and towered over my chair, insisting that I dance with him. I’m sure he would say he was being charming and that I should view his attention as complimentary, but I didn’t. Immediately, I felt intimidated and threatened. I shrunk away from him. He moved closer. I then repeated my words, firmer this time. His reaction: “Why are you being such a bitch? C’mon, let’s dance.”
He then reached for my arm, but I moved away. Again, I’m sure he viewed his attempt to touch this “bitch” as simply coaxing. I viewed it as threatening. Now, I’m really nervous, and so are my friends. None of us knew what to do so we sat in silence, staring at each other, hoping he would leave. Needless to say, that didn’t work. Casanova’s verbal abuse escalated and when I tried to leave the table to find a bouncer he blocked my way. Fortunately, a guy at the next table intervened, but that only had Casanova threatening him. A bouncer finally arrived and tossed lover boy out. (I sent over drinks to the table of the guy who intervened.)
All I could think about from that point on was: Will that guy be waiting outside for me when I leave? Thankfully, he wasn’t, but if he had been and I had a gun and I shot him – even if he’d been waiting to apologize – wouldn’t I have gotten off, since SYG law only deals with my feelings?
Ladies, feel free to add your stories. Gentlemen, be careful out there.
The possible sting of rejection was more than enough for me to keep my distance. No firearms required. I never asked anyone to dance unless it was a stone cold lock that they would say yes.
Or men could, y’know, actually meet women in the daylight while doing nice normal wholesome things and not try to pick them up for meaningless sex while getting bombed at scuzzy bars.
That’s an option, too.
*sigh* Another misandrist post.
no it isnt puck. (btw kudos.. i had to look up misandrist)
this stuff isnt directed at guys it need bot be directed at…. but
Let’s face it. most (not all) but most of the time, unwanted sexually based attention is from men to women.
This is an interesting thought. In SYG states, those laws were written to let white men shoot at non-white people and get away… these are also states who probably debate whether or not “rape” is actually a “thing”. It sickening, but it isnt too hard to imagine some conservative judge telling a woman who shot a man who was attacking her that if she just slept with the guy she wouldnt have had to shoot him.
This is not a misandrist post. I spoke about my experience with one man. The other man in my story tried to help me. And, yes, women deal with this type of stuff all the time. The cartoon showed what could happen with this stupid SYG law.
BTW, when I last wrote about the law I pointed out that gang members could, and have, used it. Didn’t hear any sighs then.
Seriously, the problem with the law is that it escalates situations we deal with every day. An obnoxious guy in the bar, an argument over a parking space, a neighbor’s barking dog, etc.
All of these examples would be viewed as examples of a bad law… except the example the cartoon shows. Then, suddenly, that goes too far – that’s the example that crosses some line?
If the cartoon showed a man with a gun, a dead man on the floor of a bar and read: This is what happens when you “accidentally” bump into me.” Would that be different? How about if the dead guy was gay? Tucker Carlson, a man who once informed us, on national television, that he’d assaulted a gay man for subjecting him to the sort of treatment which nearly all of women-kind experiences hourly.
Feminism meet second amendment.
True. I should have said “what a misandrist cartoon,” not the post. Imagine the uproar if it was a dead woman on the ground instead. It is a powerful image. But I guess with enough explication, the cartoon can be understood as a comment on the law rather than on men.
@p “Imagine the uproar if it was a dead woman on the ground instead.”
That’s what usually happens… Thousands of time every year.
Look out: the fact that the last comment posted is a precursor to a spam attack.
I marked the post Steve remarks on as SPAM and it wasn’t LE’s post just above.
I just looked at our spam filter (which catches a crazy amount of this stuff) and it looks like we even have a Keith Olbermann doppelganger trying to spam us!