I hopelessly corrupted the poll results by tweaking the question's wording midway. Although this renders my decidedly unscientific survey even more so, one changed word had a fascinating result.
When the question was
If a guy is masturbating to fantasies about a woman he knows, the woman's reaction should be...results ran 87% "Flattered." After it was posted four hours, Allie called to say that, the anecdote about skanky guys notwithstanding, she didn't think it was clear that I meant that sort of guy. So I added the word "such." As in
If such a guy is masturbating to fantasies about a woman he knows, the woman's reaction should be...I thought it a minor tweak, merely restating the obvious, but the subsequent results ran 93% "Queasy." Amazing reversal. Like Twain said, the difference between the right word and the wrong word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
I was fairly abused by the fe-dership for this post. I shan't repeat the charges here, but I feel compelled to restate my original point: when a creepy guy is lasciviously objectifying you, is flattery really the healthiest reaction? Really?
Turns out men don't have exclusive rights on creeping me out.
Allie, like many women, said there was a big difference between a skeevy guy in a bar and someone she's actually attracted to. I went for the jugular.
"So if you found out Edward Norton was jerking off while thinking about you—" I began.
"Mmmmmmmm."
"—you don't find that the least bit objectifying or creepy or uncomfortable?"
"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."
"Sick. Tomorrow I'm totally posting a photo of him with a swastika tatoo on his chest."
"Okay!"
