Greg Reed
2 min readMay 5, 2021

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When do you get to the things that I have "no idea of"?

The other side of this coin is that I, as a man, walk always on eggshells around women I don't know, because I know that they have little choice but to perceive me as a threat.

I'm not super-chatty anyway, so most of the time it doesn't matter. But if I see a woman I don't know struggling to reach a high shelf, or broken down on the side of the road, or picking up parcels that she dropped, or pretty much in any other situation where I might be in a position to step in and be a helpful fellow human being? I have to consider that they're sizing me up as a potential threat. I have to consider that they would probably rather I just leave them alone and spare them having to wonder whether I'm about to rape them. And so most of the time, that's what I do. I leave them alone. I'm pretty much forced to also keep my eyes down and never speak to anybody.

The one time I came across a lost little girl in a department store, I had to go get my wife from a few aisles over to come and take her to a store employee -- because if I did it myself and happened to bump into the girl's parents, they'd immediately assume I was in the process of abducting her. Not so my wife, though. Because women don't abduct children. Only men do that.

I don't blame women for any of this. I blame all the assholes who force them to do it. I blame these assholes for forcing us all to withdraw into private little bubbles where nobody worries about getting attacked, but also nobody ever connects with other human beings or helps them with little things.

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Greg Reed

US Navy veteran. 20+ years commercial nuclear reactor operator. Currently electric grid operator. Father, husband, political junkie, atheist.