this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
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I understand your point, but it does not matter whether men are panel 1 or 3, when the interaction is short you can't tell which reaction it will be. The problem is that panel 3 men exist at all, and that society normalizes it to be like that. "Men will be men" and all that is the problem. I totally get why women would be guarded because of it. Our job as men is to point out toxic behavior when it happens. That's it.
Panel 3 women do, too. Some people are just shitheads.
That's simply not true. There is a reason neither men nor women are ever the ones willfully broadcasting this behavior: society absolutely does not justify this behavior. It's invariably the one on the receiving end calling them out (and the fact that it is seen as "calling them out" in the first place is more evidence that it is not a socially acceptable behavior).
Can you find a single, solitary example of a man being shown to react immaturely to being rejected posted online somewhere, and anything even close to the majority of the response being anything resembling "men will be men"? I contend you're fabricating this.
Do you also "totally get" why someone wouldn't trust black people after having a bad experience with a person who is black? Because this is the exact same line of reasoning white supremacists use.
It's not men's job to socially police men. It's everyone's job to socially police everyone. It's ridiculous to insinuate that it's any more a male's responsibility to call out bad behavior, just because the one behaving badly is also male.
If you think that the appropriate answer to "women feel scared to reject men because of common toxic behavior" is "but its not all men"... I'm sorry to call you out but you're part of the problem.
Instead of being defensive, try to see it from their point of view and accept that something is messed up where a lot of men are like this. And I don't agree that women that are rejected react like this. Quite the opposite actually.
It's an undeniable reality that women get unsolicited advances from men multiple times a day, whereas the opposite is not true.
Wow, I've rarely seen such a robust straw man built in such a short amount of time!
Despite the impressive construction, it is a construction. I didn't say that.
No point in reading the rest of your comment, since it all follows from the ridiculous premise quoted above.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding then.
My interpretation of the comic is that the woman's first instinct was to feign interest to prevent any toxic behavior being directed to her. Then the man told her to disregard that and simply reject him which she does, then her instinct is proven right.
That to me signifies that she did not feel safe to reject him.
The way I understood your argument is that this fear of rejecting a man from panel 1, or assuming a bad reaction is "sexist" because "Men are not a monolith". I'm not sure this is appropriate to the point the comic is trying to make.
Username checks out.