Straight Extraverted Men: Please learn to flirt with each other.

When I'm walking into a store, looking down at the ground, not making eye contact with the man coming towards me, and he jovially belts out "Thanks for bringing the good weather? Was that a present from you?" then NO. I don't find you to be "friendly" and "just keeping up civic connections." I don't find myself to be "unfriendly", "jaded" or "maladjusted" because I don't want to participate in this exchange with you and told you so with my body language and eyes.

I find you to be the opposite of civic and friendly - not reading my body language at all, and not taking a moment to think about whether I want your communication. Probably not even knowing that I'm likely going to feel guilty and pissed for the next twenty minutes because I'm socialized to think I should go "Oh TEE HEE OH MR! OH YOU!! TEE HEE WOW YOU'RE SO NICE" and all I can do is squeak out a resentful, powerless small "tee hee" that I hate giving you and also know isn't enough really, for what you seem to want from me.

I wish I could say "No thank you" or better "I wonder if you are reading my body language correctly? It seems clear to me and to a casual observer that I'd like privacy at this moment. You have no idea where I am at emotionally and you're not giving me any choices. I know you're having a moment but please check to see if I am that moment with you. I am not. A friendly head nod would have been fine."

Oh wait, a head nod? That's what you would give a man. You would not demand a flirt from a man.

In the spirit of problem solving, I offer this: hetero extravert men, LEARN TO FLIRT WITH EACH OTHER. You like flirty banter with strangers? Give it to each other since you love to impose it so much. Wait! You feel scared to flirt with a strange man? Or you feel it's "too much"? Or it's "not appropriate?" Or wierd? Then think twice before you do it to a woman.

Men. Learn to flirt with each other. I am tired of bearing the emotional responsibility for your fears of intimacy with 50% of the human race.

I am very, very tired of being imposed on emotionally by strange men and then running a script that I am the rude one.

I. am. not. the. self-absorbed. person. in. this. situation.