21 Oblivious Men That Are Now Single For A Reason.

[Orrex]

11. But why must be interpreted that way?

8. I was dropping my date off at her apartment after a nice evening. She asked me up for coffee, but I politely declined, stating "I can't drink coffee late at night, it keeps me up" Lady, if you're out there, I didn't realize that coffee didn't really mean ... well, whatever.

"Well, whatever" could easily mean any of the possibilities that I mentioned, as well as many others. Why must we take it as "Lady, I now understand that you were propositioning me for sex;" it might have meant "Lady, I now understand that I missed an opportunity to get to know you better."

For that matter, why should we assume that she wasn't asking him up for that reason? Might she not, in fact, have been offering coffee as part of the socially-constructed pretense to invite him for sex? And, if she might have meant it that way, would it be wrong for him to interpret it that way? Assuming that the tale is true as told, I'm guessing that he has more context than you or I. Perhaps his post hoc interpretation is correct?

DISCLAIMER: In my youth I was 100% The Oblivious Male, to the point that friends (male and female) would mock me immediately after I'd utterly failed to pick up on signals that, to them, were obvious and unmistakable beacons. Perhaps for that reason I am more inclined to sympathize with the non-sexual interpretation of each of these 21 examples, because I would almost certainly have interpreted them that way myself.