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Asking the time
Sunday, November 10th, 2002 06:23 pmMore from McCaughy's book:
Is asking the time in America some kind of a come-on? Maybe I'm naive, but in both Britain and Turkey I've had lots of women ask me for the time, or a light or whatever, and it never occurred to me that they had designs on my honour; I had innocently assumed that the same applied in reverse. OK, asking a question like that can sometimes be a prelude to a chat-up, though for that purpose they're almost as corny as "Do you come here often", but I'd be seriously worried about living in a society where it inevitably meant that, or was a prelude to mugging or whatever.
Quigley [a self-defence instructor] first instructs women to take on an assertive posture in daily life. She suggests that a woman mark a man with her eyes, avoid answering men who ask what time it is, and not to worry about being polite to them."
Is asking the time in America some kind of a come-on? Maybe I'm naive, but in both Britain and Turkey I've had lots of women ask me for the time, or a light or whatever, and it never occurred to me that they had designs on my honour; I had innocently assumed that the same applied in reverse. OK, asking a question like that can sometimes be a prelude to a chat-up, though for that purpose they're almost as corny as "Do you come here often", but I'd be seriously worried about living in a society where it inevitably meant that, or was a prelude to mugging or whatever.
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