Lost in transit

In order to avoid sexual harassment charges, men have to find innovative ways for women to look at them without whistling, nudging, etc. Could this be the case??

You're suggesting I'd put a guy's head through a pane of glass for that purpose?

Novel concept, except that I'm married, and I've never really had to resort to any kind of trick to get women to notice me.

Whoops!

Bizarre comment sequence!

Strange thing is, you can find people as obnoxiously rude as that, standing in front of you, despite it being obvious that you were looking in the window, in any country. And who are these people? I know it isn't me. We all know it isn't us! And I'm sure it can't be any of my friends. Clearly it can't be any of your friends, either, right? So it must be the other people, the ones left over. They're the same ones who litter everywhere, who push in in all queues possible, and who cheat and rob and steal. Yet I still know it isn't me or any of my friends, seriously. So it must be the rest of you.

Fabulous logic!
I have to say that this is one thing that I've really noticed, and it always grates on me, more so than people spitting inches away from my feet, or not thanking me for a holding a door open for them. It happened to me last week while I was browsing DVDs at a Virgin Megastore.
Two feet from the rack at best, I was nevertheless overlooked by a thirtysomething Chinese bloke, who interposed himself between me and the shelf. I could have licked the hairy mole on his neck for his proximity. I was so taken aback that I didn't say anything, allowing him to peruse, then move on. He took a step back; the fool! I stepped in front of him with a big grin on my soul. Alas, concepts of personal space differ; he merely peered over my shoulder and breathed down my neck. Yum.

Erm, isn't it of absolutely no relevance where an "offender" is from? In my understanding, issues of personal space are more complex than being put down to nationality. And I'm sure no-one wants to go in the direction of "All Chinese people are like that..."

In any country, different concepts of personal space can be explained by whether someone comes from a rural or urban background, how preoccupied they are with their thoughts, how short-sighted they are (literally!), how they are as an individual (even within a so-called "collectivist" society), and so on.

Something I know I've had to learn is one of the hardest things to get right in life: to remember that in the long-run, someone standing too close to you is not important, and that the best way to improve the quality of your life is to ignore it, or, if it got you angry, to remind yourself of how insignificant it really is, and then to move on.

Thanks for the lecture.

Now I have to push *your* head through a window.

Of course it's of no relevance. I made no implication that it was; merely describing the nature of a person, whether Chinese, Canadian or called David, hardly equates to doing so. I need not have included any descriptor, but I'm not a pedant, or overly prone to generalise, so it was merely a case of situational accuracy. My position, I hope, should now be clear.
Incidentally, I don't see the above account as an invasion of personal space story - I can happily tango with a stranger, and don't mind it at all - but concepts of consideration. It happened to be more amusing to me than anything else; I'll just have to keep my sense of humour to myself, lest it be misconstrued.

Apologies for misunderstanding, Stairs.

That's alright - I can be vague sometimes 8) I get equally irked when people do generalise grossly... a function of living in Asia my whole life I suppose!