I think it's less to do with whether women are passive and more to do with human psychology. We expect certain behaviors from people and when they cross those boundaries we are not sure how to react. If someone takes the lead in reacting to an unusual situation, then everyone else will spring to action. There is actually a very small percentage of the population that will react in the manner that we all think we should act in certain situations. Zazzy appears to be one; most women (and even most men) who are accosted in that manner by a stranger would feel very uncomfortable but would not want to "cause a scene" and would accept it while hoping the stranger stops or goes away.
Con men and scumbags use that typical human response to take advantage of people all the time. It's not an easy hurdle to overcome, as evidenced by how commonly we respond in the passive manner, and how rarely in the aggressive. Thus, education (making it clear that such line-crossing is socially unacceptable) is very important.
Con men and scumbags use that typical human response to take advantage of people all the time. It's not an easy hurdle to overcome, as evidenced by how commonly we respond in the passive manner, and how rarely in the aggressive. Thus, education (making it clear that such line-crossing is socially unacceptable) is very important.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
