Why is it some men get all offended if a woman they don't know is wary around them?

[KitSileya]

224. Men do *not* have the right to start any conversation they want in any manner they want.

1 of every 6 women will be assaulted in their lifetime. Some studies put the number at 1 in 3, and there are studies that show that female college students are raped at insane numbers. Most of these assaults, and rapes, are perpetrated by men. Men have been the privileged gender in most societies in the world for centuries, if not millennia. That is starting to change, slowly, very slowly.

One of the privileges men have lost is the right to approach any woman they want, in any manner they want. Sorry, but that's just the way it is. Before, men were obligated to open doors for women, and all sorts of "chivalrous" behavior. Society no longer requires that of them (with cultural variations - just as there are cultural variations as to how far equality has been put into practice.) Now they're obligated to assess whether their approach will be welcome BEFORE they make said approach.

First, they need to assess the locale of said potential approach - are they alone in an elevator? Extra caution needed. In fact, if they are in any place where the woman is alone/it's dark/the woman has no easy way to get away (for example if they're on a bus, or tram) the man should let the woman approach him, or only approach her if she signals very clearly that she is open to being approached.

Which brings us to the second point of checking whether an approach would be welcome. The man needs to assess the woman's body language. Are they sharing eye contact? Does she smile at him? Roll her eyes over something that happened so they can laugh about it together? Then, by all means, initiate conversation. However, if she isn't looking at him at all/is reading/looking out the window/hunching her shoulders/listening to music/turns away slightly/is engrossed with her smartphone, then she is not open to an approach., and the guy should stay away.

Women aren't obligated to respond to every ouverture she is given - for young women, that's quite a lot of interruptions every day. This cartoon may illustrate the phenomenon: