This happened during the days when Craigslist still had personals and before I met my partner, but I was thinking about it in reference to the feminist “men only want sex” narrative.

I had posted on the “Dating” portion of Craigslist, not the “Strictly Platonic” area. Like most men, I didn’t get many responses. One or two a month, if that. But I got one from a woman who seemed interesting. Talked with her a little, she seemed ok. A little intense but normal. But then she wrote something in an email that seemed a little odd about sex so I responded with something like, “I’m interested in dating and all that entails. I’m not interested in a long-term platonic relationship or I would’ve posted in the ‘Strictly Platonic’ section.”

Then she proceeded to send me a multi-paragraph completely unhinged rant that mostly consisted of a jeremiad about how I was terrible because like all men, I only wanted sex, men are terrible beasts who can only think about sex, and that I was a horrible human because I wanted her to be my “sex doll.” I was like what the ever-livin’ fuck? I shouldn’t have even responded, but I smarmily replied that she seemed to be the one obsessed with sex and I hoped that she had some funds to get her obvious mental illness checked out. Then I blocked her.

The funny thing about that is the woman I dated just prior to her I had made anxious and worried because in her words I “hadn’t touched me or even tried to have sex with me after three dates. Are you not attracted to me?” I was plenty attracted to her. I just wanted to get to know her a bit more.

Men cannot fucking win. If we say we’re interested in sex, we’re horrible creeps who allegedly can only think about that. If we take our time to get to know a woman, we’re still horrible people making women anxious and feel unattractive. Which fucking one is it, huh? Which fucking one?

So glad I met my partner. All that shit was an absolute goddamn nightmare.