
There was a pretty large social media movement a few years ago where women were posting videos of men online calling them creepy and telling men to stop approaching them. Right around the same time there was a wave of feminist men that were posting on social media about holding other men accountable. The combination of those two, along with Covid wrapping up right before, created a fear of being seen as creepy and an acceptance of solitude that has killed any drive for men to approach women.
No one gender has to make the first move. Usually men are expected to, but woman are also equally capable of doing it. If you’re interested in someone, you shouldn’t think about your gender in regards to making a move, because no one gender is supposed to make the first move. This has been my ted talk
I agree. It’s the fault of men that it’s gotten to this point, and it’s the fault of men that the first reaction of women when a man approaches them is “that’s a creeper,” but men withdrawing to this point is the fault of women for not verifying that the men approaching them are/are not creeps. There have been a lot of instances where it’s come out after the initial social media post that the man in question wasn’t doing anything wrong, but by that point the man has already been labeled a creep.
It’s gotten better in the last year or so, and people are starting to interact with each other again, but it’s going to be a long time and a lot of work before men and women feel comfortable around each other again. We all need to think critically about social interactions and ignore initial knee-jerk reactions, or eventually there will be no social interactions at all, and that’s good for nobody.