Bruno

Discussion (7) ¬

1. 
   ronald

   February 25, 2019 at 2:35 pm | #

   Not like anyone asked but IMHO Bruno’s apparent strategy of seeing how long she can make a guy feel stupid before he finally gives up could very easily get her into a great deal of trouble. Some guys get really very angry when a woman makes them feel stupid and really very angry guys can react violently to whatever and whoever makes them feel stupid.
2. 
   Peter Rogan

   February 25, 2019 at 4:04 pm | #

   Guys do not often face the unwanted attentions of someone who really isn’t up to their standards, but it’s day-in, day-out for women. It’s uncomfortable to be the only person who realizes the attraction is physical only, and incomplete, especially with someone who keeps trying because he just doesn’t see the incompatibility. Especially since some guys feel picked-on when they realize they’re out of their league, and immediately suppose she’s doing it deliberately because she’s nothing but a c*nt. Very hard to get along with people who project their expectations and their failures on your without bothering to consider they’re not compatible with their intended romantic target. It’s always her fault. She never gave him a chance. And she’s showing off deliberately. And so on to domestic violence.
3. 
   llirium

   February 26, 2019 at 9:08 am | #

   Women also have a responsibility to the guy’s feelings. If a woman laughs in a guy’s face for a rejection, he’s supposed to just suck it up. If a guy did that to a woman, he’d probably be called “cruel”. It’s a double standard that I don’t like.

   Not to say that no one ever crosses the line, but a little sympathy to the guys is all I want. It isn’t easy for shy, awkward guys to come up to a woman in the first place. If they babble or do stupid stuff it’s probably because of being nervous, maybe they’re missing the “not interested” signs or are just happy to have the woman talk with him at all.
4. 
   Peter Rogan

   February 26, 2019 at 9:34 pm | #

   Why should a woman apologize for YOUR imagined feelings? I don’t get it. You came up with them on your own, just looking at her, and you want her to take OWNERSHIP of them? What is she, your mother or something?

   I’m disturbed to find men still hang their unwanted attentions on women and blame them for not wanting them. This is the projection of a child. If you had gone up to a cop the same way you’d get a very different reaction and you might just see his/her point of view on the come-on. Bruno doesn’t owe this case of arrested development the time of day. And it’s time men stopped believing women are obligated to be nice to them for coming up and imposing on them. Not cool, not nice, not polite and not welcome. The sooner men realize that, the sooner they’ll realize they’re being creeps and stop it.
5. 
   ronald

   February 27, 2019 at 1:36 am | #

   “Why should a woman apologize for YOUR imagined feelings? I don’t get it.”

   I don’t either. Perhaps that’s because Ilirium didn’t actually say anything about “apologizing.” So, no, it’s actually YOU I don’t get. Nothing new there…
6. 
   llirium

   February 27, 2019 at 12:15 pm | #

   Thanks for the presumption, because I’m actually a woman who is sick and tired of men being treated like creeps just for having the courage to come up to a woman at all. (in this #MeToo age especially)

   Some men are seriously swearing off women altogether because of the paranoia women are encouraged to harbor against men (I call it “Schroedinger’s Rapist”).

   Why is a man even approaching a woman bad? How can he read the woman’s mind and KNOW that his attention is unwanted before he even comes up to her? Men should always stay away from women by default and miss out on a potentially fulfilling partnership?

   I thought the prevailing taboo against women approaching men still exists in English-speaking countries; that it would make them look “slutty” or “desperate”? Who is supposed to approach whom when the woman doesn’t want to look like a slut and the man doesn’t want to look like a rapist?

   Just because one guy might come up and be annoying, it isn’t the end of the world. He’s annoying, but not dangerous. If the guy gets aggressive or grabby, then yeah, go to town: fling the alcohol in his face, kick him in the balls, call the bouncer or do whatever is necessary to keep yourself safe. Most guys just want a chance, but on a woman’s whim, that earnest, shy guy will get the same violent treatment as the aggressive/grabby asshole just for saying “Hi”. That isn’t fair.

   It would also be easier if women offered up clear “no”s. Ronald has a good point: in this strip, Bruno is not giving a clear “no”. She’s sort of playing around with the guy, and if he’d been less kind, maybe he would have calling it “teasing”, “humiliating” or, dare I say it, “leading him on”. It gets people angry when they realize you’re belittling them or not taking them seriously: that’s human, not exclusive to the realm of men.

   Men don’t deserve to be vilified for wanting sex or a partner. I also don’t believe in women lacking enough self-agency to say “no” to dismiss someone who is merely annoying. If we can’t deal with that little, I’d hate to think we couldn’t at least maim any potential rapists/murderers either.

   “You be nicer first” does not work for criminals who won’t give a crap about how they “ought” to act, since they already have to will to break the law and do harm anyways.
7. 
   ronald

   February 27, 2019 at 12:41 pm | #

   “”Ronald has a good point”"

   Thank you. :-)

   Personally, I don’t even try to date (a course of non-action I decided upon long before #MeToo, btw) because, frankly, sex simply isn’t that important to me; I’m not asexual, I just don’t consider sex a priority, that’s all. I’m living proof that sex is NOT a basic human “need” like food, sleep, et cetera. It’s possible that that’s just me, that I’m simply some sort of genetic deviation, but if so, well, that’s the way the cookie bounces. I can’t feel what I don’t.

   I could provide quite a list of why I think the positives (sex and other good stuff) of dating don’t outweigh the negatives but that wouldn’t accomplish anything. I’ll note, though, that when I say that “[I think] human interaction is highly overrated,” I’m really not kidding.