The latter is something which would most likely happen in an environment such as high school, but still, it's traumatizing enough to seriously screw up some guys. If a guy (who doesn't have some glaring physical, personality, or mental disorder) asks a girl out, the previous may happen, or her boyfriend (who he didn't know existed) comes over and beats him up, or she sues him, or she gets her girlfriends together to lambaste him.

If a woman (who doesn't have some glaring physical, personality, or mental disorder) asks a guy out, the guy can say either yes or no.

(Thus they never get anywhere, and also don't appear to pick up on female signals.) Guys who are more sensitive (women want sensitive guys, right? :) to this kind of thing tend to avoid situations where their actions can be misinterpreted like this, and play it safe.

Guys have been accused of stalking (which is another example of media-driven hysteria) for doing simple things like sending a girl flowers, or showing up at the business she works at (e.g.

Your room or mine?' or anything dumb like that.) Is it good or bad to open a door for a woman? (I've gotten bitched out for that.) I've gotten bitched out for telling someone happy birthday! (And no, it was simply a 'Hey, happy birthday!' Not a 'Happy birthday. These guys know what is acceptable and what is not in a sane society, but American society isn't sane.

Sexual harassment hysteria has bred an entire generation of young men who have no idea what is permissible and what isn't.

This is about ten times worse if the setting is in a situation where the woman is being paid to be friendly, such as if she's a waitress, checker at a store, or any other kind of service position.

He also can't tell if she has a boyfriend, is married, or is otherwise committed. Why? Because the guy can't tell whether the woman is just being friendly, or if she's attracted to him.

They don't have to be obvious, but being a little too subtle tends to cause problems. After taking enough of this kind of crap, the guy in question tends to change his game plan. For example, they figure out that a guy is attracted to them, and even though they are attracted as well, they do something bizarre like avoiding the guy. I think some guys must emit some kind of friend pheromones or something. These are the guys who get the calls at 11PM or 2AM on some Friday night from a crying female friend who wants him to come over and comfort her after she gets dumped, or when her dog dies, or whatever. That's actually not so bad, but this syndrome seems to be contagious, with subsequent women following suit. That is, the unlucky guy has many female friends, but that's all he is to them. Some guys, for whatever reason, suffer from just friends syndrome.If a guy is just unlucky and this happens several times in a row, he might finally decide to wait until he has some obvious indication that a woman likes him before he does anything. I don't understand the female psychological process behind this, but there it is. If a guy is around long enough, sooner or later he runs into some woman who actually gets offended if he asks her out.If a guy acts on the subtle signals that women try to emit, then sooner or later he'll probably get himself into an awkward situation where he basically makes an ass out of himself, and/or winds up upsetting some women (more on that in a second), and/or gets in trouble somehow because he misinterprets them.I don't necessarily do these, but I can at least relate to them in some situations. Speaking as a guy, here are some possible reasons why this is the case. Occasionally, I hear women wonder why some (most?) guys don't seem to pick up on the hints and signals they emit.

Song that goes dont call me up at 2am