Small Steps Forward

So this guy is telling me that one of the results of breaking his back was that he now suffers from a constant erection. He’s had surgeries which alleviated, but not cured, the situation.

???

Out of all the come-on lines I’ve heard, this has to rank as one of the most incredibly stupid ones I’ve heard. It’s the kind of line which makes me wonder about what planet he’s from. It’s the kind of line which makes me imagine that the only girls he’s ever got were dead drunk, picked up at bars during last call.

He dropped it casually in the conversation. Or thought he was. He brought the subject around (the way some people bring up the fact they’re in MENSA, or are Rhodes scholars, or whatever the blank they’re most proud of) by talking about his medical condition. And I’m wondering, as he finishes his story with a flourish, is this really what he thinks sells himself? Out of all the personal attributes he could promote, this is the one he thinks women are interested in?

And I could see it if he were, like, 20. But he’s an older guy. So not only am I taking points off for his conversational skills, and for the type of women he must usually go after, but also for immaturity and for little to no sense of self. He’s only selling sex, and not even his great skills as a lover or anything; he’s selling himself as a piece of meat. He’s not selling himself as a person. He probably can’t. His conversation is certainly revealing there isn’t much there.

I remember having a conversation with a woman about how men made no sense. She related a conversation she’d had with a guy. The guy had told her that until he got married and asked his wife what had attracted her to him, he had no earthly clue what women looked for or at in a man. He thought he did. But he was, oh, so very, very wrong.

When you consider that most guys figure out pretty early that they’ve got to sell themselves to women, you’d think they’d endeavor to do the first thing any good salesman would do: qualify your customer. Instead, they toss out incredibly inane pieces of crap as if they were party favors. And then it’s the woman’s fault that she’s uninterested and even repulsed.

I see this guy around fairly often. As much as I am uninterested in any future conversations with him, I’m really not up for playing the avoidance game: it takes too much energy, and it rarely works. But if I have another conversation like this, extreme sarcasm is going to override any social graces. I should probably at least avoid him until PMS is over.